Data-array processing system

ABSTRACT

A data-array processing system with a memory for storing an array of data-elements, a processor to perform a series of operations on data elements stored in a first section (832) of the memory and to copy data from the first section to a second section (830) of the memory after each series of operations, and output hardware, such a video processor and monitor, for outputting the data-elements in the second section. In order to reduce unnecessary copying of data-elements from the first section to the second section, the processor sets flags indicative of each of the of portions (e.g. P, Q, R, S) of the first section which is modified during that processing operation, and checks the flags during the subsequent copying operation to copy only the flagged portions.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority from PCT/GB 90/01216, filed Aug. 3,1990, published as WO92/02924, Feb. 20, 1992, and now expired.

BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to a data-array processing system.

The invention is concerned more particularly with a system having amemory for storing an array of data-elements, a processing means whichcan perform a series of processing operations on data-elements stored ina first section of the memory and which can perform a copying operationafter each processing operation in which data-elements are copied fromthe first section to a second section of the memory, and means foroutputting the data-elements in the second section of the memory. Moreparticularly, but not exclusively, the data elements may be pixel data,the processing operations may be pixel rendering operations, the memorymay be a video RAM, and the output means may be a monitor which displaysthe pixel data in the second section of the memory, leaving the firstsection of the memory hidden.

A problem with such a system as described above is that the copying of acomplete image from the second section to the first section of thememory would absorb a significant amount of processor time, especiallysince it is an operation which would be required continuously in someapplications, such as animation.

In accordance with the present invention, the processing means isoperable in connection with a processing operation (such as a renderingoperation) to set a respective flag indicative of the or each of aplurality of portions of the first (or hidden) section which is modifiedduring that processing operation, and is operable during a subsequentcopying operation to copy the or each flagged portion of the firstsection.

The present invention has evolved from a recognition that in manyapplications, only a small part of the data-array in the first sectionis modified in a typical processing operation, and the invention enablesonly the or each portion making up the modified part to be copied. Byreducing the amount of copying which is carried out, a substantialincrease in performance can be achieved.

Preferably, after each copying operation, the or each set flag is reset.The data-elements may be arranged to be stored in the memory as aplurality of aligned pages, and in this case a respective flag isprovided for each page of data-elements in the first section of thememory. The invention may be employed in a demand-paged dual memorysystem having a second memory and in which the processing means isoperable to transfer data-elements between the first-mentioned memoryand the second memory page-by-page. In this case, the processing meansis preferably operable in connection with a processing operation to seta respective second flag indicative of the or each page of data-elementswhich has been modified since that page has been stored in the firstmemory, and the processing means is operable, when a page in the firstmemory is to be replaced by a further page from the second memory,firstly to copy the page of data-elements in the first memory to thesecond memory, but only if the respective second flag is set, beforecopying the new page from the second memory to the first memory. In thiscase, preferably upon each copying operation of a page of data-elementsfrom the second memory to the first memory, the second flag for thatpage of data-elements is reset. The invention may be employed in asystem in which each page of data-elements is arranged in the firstmemory as a plurality of aligned patches of data-elements, with theprocessing means being operable to perform the processing operations onpatches of data-elements stored in the first memory so that a processedpatch can comprise data-elements from more than one patch. In this caseeach first flag preferably has associated therewith at least one furtherflag which is set when the rendered patch has data-elements in arespective further patch, and the processing means is operable during acopying operation from the first section to the second section of thefirst memory to copy the or each flagged further group of data-elements.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

Preferred embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way ofnon-limiting example, with reference to the drawings, in which FIGS. 4to 11 and 42 to 45 are of major relevance to the present invention, andin which:

FIG. 1 is a nigh-level schematic illustration of a computer systemembodying the invention;

FIGS. 2 and 3 illustrations of modified forms of the system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is an illustration in greater detail of a renderer employed inthe systems of FIGS. 1 to 3;

FIG. 5 is an illustration in greater detail of a front-end processorboard employed in the systems of FIGS. 1 to 3;

FIGS. 6A and 6B show how patches of pixel data are made up;

FIGS. 7A and 7B show how pages of patch data, and groups or `superpages`of page data are made up;

FIG. 8 is a schematic illustration of a physical image memory and theaddress lines therefor, used in the renderer of FIG. 4;

FIG. 9A is a 3-D representation of an aligned patch of data within asingle page in the image memory;

FIG. 9B is a 2-D representation of a page, showing the patch of

FIG. 9A;

FIG. 10A is a 3-D representation of a non-aligned patch of data within asingle page in the image memory;

FIG. 10B is a 2-D representation of a page, showing the patch of FIG.10A;

FIG. 11A is a 2-D representation of four pages in a virtual memory,showing a non-aligned patch which crosses the page boundaries and anenlargement of the circled part of the page boundary intersection;

FIG. 11B is a 2-D representation of the physical memory illustratinglocations of the four pages shown in FIG. 11A;

FIG. 11C is a 3-D representation of the non-aligned patch of FIG. 11A;

FIG. 12 is a truth table showing how page selection is made for patcheswhich cross page boundaries;

FIG. 13 shows two truth tables for selecting, respectively, X and Ypatch address incrementation;

FIG. 14 is a schematic illustration in greater detail of part of therenderer of FIG.

FIGS. 15A and 15B are schematic illustration in greater detail of anaddress translator of FIG. 14;

FIG. 16 is an illustration of the operation of a contents addressablememory used in the address translator of FIG. 15;

FIG. 17 is a schematic illustration in greater detail of a read surfaceshifter used FIG. 14;

FIG. 18 shows in greater detail an array of multiplexers forming part ofthe surface shifter of FIG. 17;

FIG. 19 illustrates the translation made by the surface shifter of FIG.17;

FIG. 20 is an illustration of the operation a least-recently-usedsuperpage table which may be used with the address translator of FIG.15;

FIG. 21 is a schematic diagram showing a page fault table which may beused with the address translator of FIG. 15;

FIG. 22 is a schematic diagram of an exchange and grid processor of therenderer of FIG. 4;

FIG. 23 is a flow diagram illustrating the operation of the processorsand a priority encoder of the grid processor of FIG. 22;

FIG. 24 is a table giving an example of the operation of the priorityencoder of FIG. 22;

FIG. 25 illustrates the correlation between aligned memory cells and twolevels of a patch in a 16-bit split patch system;

FIGS. 26 and 27 show how pages of patch data, and superpages of pagedata are made up in a 16-bit split patch system;

FIGS. 28 and 29 correspond to FIGS. 26 and 27 respectively in an 8-bitsplit patch system;

FIGS. 30A to C shows modifications of parts of the address translator ofFIG. 15 used in the split patch system;

FIG. 31 is a table to explain the operation of a funnel shifter used inthe circuit of FIG. 30A;

FIGS. 32 and 33 illustrate non-aligned split patches in a 16-bit and an8-bit patch system, respectively;

FIG. 34 shows a further modification of part of the address translatorof FIG. 15 used in the split patch system;

FIGS. 35A and 35B are tables which illustrate the operation of look-uptables in the circuit of FIG. 34;

FIGS. 36A and 36B shows modifications of a near-page-edge table of FIG.15A used in the split patch system;

FIG. 37 illustrates, in part, a modification to the exchange and gridprocessor of FIG. 22 used in the split patch system;

FIGS. 38 and 39 are tables which illustrate the operation of furthertables in a further modification of part of the address translator ofFIG. 15;

FIG. 40 shows the further modification to FIG. 15;

FIG. 41 shows a modification to FIG. 8 which is made in addition to themodification shown in FIG. 40;

FIG. 42 is a representation of the VRAM memory space, showing how pagesof data are rendered in one section of the memory and then copied toanother monitoring section of the memory;

FIG. 43 shows a circuit for determining which pages need not be copiedfrom the rendering section to the monitoring section and to the virtualmemory;

FIG. 44 illustrates the setting and resetting of flags in a table of thecircuit of FIG. 43;

FIGS. 45A to 45C are flow diagrams illustrating the copying operationsand FIG. 45D shows the notation used in FIGS. 45A to 45C;

FIG. 46 is a circuit diagram of a modification to the exchange of FIG.22;

FIG. 47A to 47C are simplified forms of the circuit of FIG. 46 whenoperating in three different modes;

FIG. 48 shows a modification to part of the flow diagram at FIG. 23;

FIG. 49 is a schematic diagram of the processors and a microcode memory,with one of the processors shown in detail;

FIGS. 50A to 50D illustrate three images (FIGS. 50A to C) which are,processed to form a fourth image (FIG. 50D); and

FIG. 51 is a system diagram showing in particular a page filing system.

HARDWARE OVERVIEW DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIGS. 1 to 3 show three different hardware configurations of computersystems embodying the invention. Referring firstly to FIG. 1, a hostcomputer 10 has its own backplane in the form of a VME bus 12 whichprovides general purpose communications between various circuit boardsof the computer, such as processor, memory and disk controller boards.To this known configuation, and within a standard housing 14 for thecomputer 10, there is added a board on which is provided a renderer 16and a video processor 18, a Futurebus+ 20, and a front-end board 22. Therenderer 16 is connected to the VME bus 12 and the Futurebus+ 20, andalso communicates with the video processor 18, which in turn drives anexternal colour monitor 24 having a high-resolution of, for example,1280×1024 pixels. The front-end board 22 is also connected to theFuturebus+ 20 and can communicate with a selection of peripherals, whichare illustrated collectively by the block 26. The configuration of FIG.1 is of use when the host computer 10 has a VME backplane 12 and thereis sufficient room in the computer housing 14 for the renderer 16, videoprocessor 18, Futurebus+ 20 and front-end board 22, and may be used, forexample, with a `Sun Workstation`.

In the case where the computer housing 14 is physically too small, orwhere the host computer 10 does not have a VME or Futurebus+ backplane,the configuration of FIG. 2 may be employed. In FIG. 2, a separatehousing 28 is used for the renderer 16, video processor 18, front-endboard 22 and Futurebus+ 20, as described above, together with a VME bus12 and a remote interface 30. In the host computer housing 14, a hostinterface 32 is connected to the backplane 34 of the host computer 10,which may be of VME, Qbus, Sbus, Multibus II, MCA, PC/AT, etc. format.The host interface 32 and remote interface 30 are connected by anasynchronous differential bus 36 which provides reliable communicationdespite the physical separation of the host and remote interfaces. Theconfiguration of FIG. 2 is appropriate when the host computer 10 is, forexample, an `Apple Mackintosh`, `Sun Sparkstation`, `IBM-PC`, or `DuPont Pixel Systems bRISC`.

In the event that a host computer becomes available which has aFuturebus+ backplane and sufficient space in its housing for theadditional components, then the configuration of FIG. 3 may be employed.In FIG. 3, the renderer 16 and the front-end board 22 are directlyconnected to the Futurebus+ backplane 20.

The general functions of the elements shown in FIGS. 1 to 3 will now bedescribed in more detail. The host computer 10 supplies data in the formof control information, high level commands and parameters therefor tothe renderer 16 via the VME backplane (FIG. 1), via the backplane 34,host and remote interfaces 32, 30 and the VME bus 12 (FIG. 2), or viathe Futurebus+ backplane 20 (FIG. 3). Some of this data may be forwardedto the front-end board via the Futurebus+ 20 (FIGS. 1 and 2), or sentdirect via the Futurebus+ backplane 20 (FIG. 3) to the front-end board22.

The Futurebus+ 20 serves to communicate between the renderer 16 and thefront-end processor 22 and is used, in preference to a VME bus or thelike, in view of its high bit width of 128 bits and its high bandwidthof about 500 to 800 Mbytes/s.

As will be decribed in greater detail below, the renderer 16 includes animage memory, part of which is mapped to the monitor 24 by the videoprocessor 18, and the renderer serves to perform image calculations andrendering, that is the drawing of polygons in the memory, in accordancewith the commands and parameter supplied by the host computer 10 or thefront-end board 22.

The front-end board 22 serves a number of functions. It includes a largepaging RAM, which also interfaces with external disk storage, to providea massive paging memory, and pages of image data can be swapped betweenthe paging RAM and the image memory of the renderer 16 via theFuturebus+ 20. The front-end board also has a powerful floating-pointprocessing section which can be used for graphics transformation andshading operations. Furthermore, the front-end board may provideinterfacing with peripherals such as a video camera or recorder,monitor, MIDI audio, microphone, SCSI disk and RS 232.

Overall, therefore, the renderer 16, video processor 18 and front-endboard 22 can accelerate pixel handling aspects of an application, andalso accelerate other computation intensive aspects of an application.

The renderer 16 and video processor 18 will now be described in greaterdetail with reference to FIG. 4, which shows the main elements of therenderer 16 and the main data and address pathways,

The renderer 16 includes a 32-bit internal bus 300, a VME interface 301which interfaces between the VME bus 12 (FIG. 1) or the remote interface30 (FIG. 2) and the internal bus 300, and a Futurebust+ interface 302which interfaces between the Futurebus+ 20 and the internal bus 300.Also connecting to the internal bus 300 are a control processor 314implemented by an Intel 80960i, an EPROM 303, 4 or 16 Mbyte of DRAM 304,a real time clock and an I/O block 306 including a SCSI ports. Thefunctions of the control processor 314 and the associated DRAM 304 andEPROM 303 are (a) to boot-up and configure the system; (b) to provideresource allocation for local PRAM 318, 322 of address and gridprocessors 310, 312 (described in detail below) to ensure that there isno memory space collision; (c) to control the loading of microcode intomicrocode memories 307, 308 (described below); (d) to run applicationspecific remote procedure calls (RPCs); and (e) to communicate via theI/O block 306 with a diagnostics port of the host computer 10 to enablediagnostics information to be displayed on the monitor 214. The DRAM 304can also be used as a secondary image page store for the VRAM 700described below.

The renderer 16 also includes an address processing section 309comprising an address broadcast bus 311 to which are connected 64 kbyteof global GRAM 316, a data/instruction cache 313 which also connects tothe internal bus 300, an internal bus address generator 315 which alsoconnects to the internal bus 300, an address processor 310 with 16 kbyteof local PRAM 318, and a sequencer 317 for the address processor 310which receives microcode from a microcode memory 307. The addressprocessor 310 also connects to a virtual address bus 319. The mainpurpose of the address processing section 309 is to generate virtualaddresses which are placed on the virtual address bus under control ofmicrocode from the microcode memory 307.

Also included in the renderer 16 is an address translator 740 (describedin further detail below) which receives the virtual addresses on thevirtual address bus 319 and translates them into physical addresses ofdata in the video RAM 700, if the required data is present, orinterrupts the address processor 310 to cause the required data to beswapped in from the paging RAM 304 or other page stores on the externalbuses, if the required data is not present in the VRAM 700.

The renderer 16 furthermore includes a data processing section 321 whichis somewhat similar to the address processing section 309 and comprisesa data broadcast bus 323, to which are connected 64 kbyte of global CRAM324, a diagnostics register 325 which also connects to the internal bus300 and which may be used instead of the I/O block 306 to senddiagnostics information to the host computer 10, an internal bus addressgenerator 327 which also connects to the internal bus 300, a gridprocessor 312 having sixteen processors each with 8 kbyte of local PRAM322, and a sequencer 329 for the grid processor 312 which receivesmicrocode from a microcode memory 308. The processors of the gridprocessor 312 also connect to a data bus 331. The main purpose of thedata processing section 321 is to receive data on the data bus 331,process the data under control of microcode from the microcode memory308, and to put the processed data back onto the data bus 331.

The physical VRAM 700 connects with the data bus 331 via an exchange 326which is described in detail below, but which has the main purposes ofshuffling the order of the sixteen pixels read from or written to theVRAM 700 at one time, as desired, to enable any of the sixteenprocessors in the grid processor 312 to read from or write to any of thesixteen addressed locations in the VRAM 700 and to enable any of thesixteen processors toe transfer pixel data to any other of the sixteenprocessors.

The last main element of the renderer 16 is a bidirectional FIFO 332connecting between the broadcast buses 311, 323 of the address and dataprocessing sections 309, 321, which enables virtual addresses to betransferred directly between these two sections.

The front-end board 22 will now be described in greater detail withreference to FIG. 5.

The front-end board 22 has an internal bus 502 which communicates withthe Futurebus+ 20, A paging memory section 504 is connected to theinternal bus 502 and comprises a large paging RAM 506 of, for example, 4to 256 Mbytes capacity which can be used in conjunction with the DRAM304 of the renderer, a paging memory control processor 508, andconnections to, for example, two external high speed IPI-2 disk drives510 (one of which is shown) each of which may have a capacity of, forexample, 4 Gbytes, and a data communication speed of 50 Mbytes/s, or twoexternal SCSI drives. The paging RAM 506 enables an extremely largeamount of pixel data to be stored and to be available to be paged intothe renderer 32 as required, and the fast disk 510 enables even morepixel data to be available ready to be transferred into the paging RAM506.

Floating point processing is provided by 1 to 4 Intel 80860 processors516, each rated at 80 MFlops peak. The general purpose processing powercan be used on dedicated tasks such as geometric pipeline processing, orto accelerate any part of an application which is compute-intensive,such as floating point fast Fourier transforms. Each of the floatingpoint processors 516 has a 128 KByte secondary cache memory 518 inaddition to its own internal primary cache memory.

The front-end board 22 may also, if desired, include a broadcaststandard 24-bit frame grabber connected to the internal bus 502 andhaving a video input 514, and output 516 for connection to video cameraor television-type monitor.

The front-end board 22 may also, if desired, include an input/outputprocessor 520 which provides interfacing with MIDI on line 522. SCSIdisk on line 524, at least one mouse on line 526, RS232 on line 528, andaudio signals on line 530 via a hi-directional digital/analogueconvertor 532.

VIDEO RAM AND ADDRESSING THEREOF

Now that an overview of the hardware of the whole system has been setout, the image memory configuration will be described in more detail.

As mentioned above, the VRAM has a of 16 Mbyte capacity. The system iscapable of operating with 32-bit pixels, and therefore the image memoryhas a capacity of 16M×8/32=4 Mpixels. As illustrated in FIGS. 6A and 6B,pixels are arranged in 4×4 groups referred to as `patches`. FIGS. 6A and6B show, respectively, two-and one-dimensional notations for designatinga pixel in a patch, as will be used in the following description. Inturn, as illustrated in FIG. 7A, the patches are arranged in 32×32groups referred to as `pages`. Furthermore, as illustrated in FIG. 7B,the pages are arranged in 4×4 groups referred to as `superpages`. TheVRAM therefore has a capacity of 4 Mpixels, or 256 k patches, or 256complete pages, or 16 complete superpages. However, not all pages of aparticular superpage need be stored in the memory at any one time, andsupport is provided for pages from parts of up to 128 differentsuperpages to be stored in the physical memory at the same time.

The VRAM 700 and addressing lines therefor are shown schematically inFIG. 8. Each small cube 702 in FIG. 8 represents a 32-bit pixel. Thepixels are arranged in 512 pixel×512 pixel banks B(0)-B(15) lying in theXY plane, and these pixel banks are 16 pixels deep (in the P direction).A line of 16 pixels in the P direction provides an aligned patch 704.The pixels in each bank are addressable as to X address by a respectiveone of 16 9-bit X address lines AX(0) to AX(15) and are addressable asto Y address by a respective one of 16 9-bit Y address lines AY(0) toAY(15). The Y and X addresses are sequentially supplied on a common setof 16 9-bit address lines A(0) to A(15), with the Y addresses beingsupplied first and latched in a set of 16 9-bit Y latch groups 706-0 to706-15 each receiving a row address strobe (RAS) signal on 1-bit line708, and the X addresses then being supplied and latched in a set of 169-bit X latch groups, 707-0 to 707-15 each receiving a respective columnaddress strobe signal CAS(0) to CAS(15) on lines 709(0) to 709(15),respectively.

The memory for each XY bank of pixels (512 pixels×512 pixels×1 pixel) isimplemented using eight video-RAM (VRAM) chips 710, each 258K (4-bit)nibbles. Each chip provides a one-eighth thick slice of each pixel bank,whereby 8×16=128 chips are required. Each Y latch group and X latchgroup comprises eight latches (shown in detail for Y latch group 708(1)and X latch group 707(1) and a respective one of the X and Y latches isprovided on each VRAM chip 710.

In this specification, the banks of memory will sometimes be referred toby the bank number B(0) to B(15) and at other times by a 2-dimensionalbank address (bx,by) with the correlation between the two being asfollows:

    ______________________________________                                        Bank Number                                                                              (bx,by)     Bank Number                                                                              (bx,by)                                     ______________________________________                                        B(0)       (0,0)       B(8)       (0,2)                                       B(1)       (1,0)       B(9)       (1,2)                                       B(2)       (2,0)       B(10)      (2,2)                                       B(3)       (3,0)       B(11)      (3,2)                                       B(4)       (0,1)       B(12)      (0,3)                                       B(5)       (1,1)       B(13)      (1,3)                                       B(6)       (2,1)       B(14)      (2,3)                                       B(7)       (3,1)       B(15)      (3,3)                                       ______________________________________                                    

When a location in the memory 700 is to be accessed, a patch of 16pixels is made available for reading or writing at one time. If the Yaddress and X address for all of the VRAMs 710 is the same, then an"aligned" patch of pixels (such as patch 704) will be accessed. However,it is desirable that access can be made to patches of sixteen pixelswhich are not aligned, but where various pixels in the patch to beaccessed are derived from two or four adjacent aligned patches.

it will be appreciated that access to an aligned patch in memory is morestraightforward than access to a non-aligned patch, because for analigned patch the (x,y) address of each pixel in the different XY planesof memory as shown in FIG. 8 is the same. Furthermore, the (x,y) addressof each pixel in the patch is equal to the bank address (bx,by) of thememory cell from which that pixel is derived. Referring to FIGS. 9A and9B, an aligned patch "a" having a patch address (12, 16) in a page "A"having a page address (8, 6) is shown, as an example. The pixels in thealigned patch all have the same address in the sixteen XY banks of thememory, as represented in FIG. 9A, and when displayed would produce a4×4 patch of pixels offset from the page boundaries by an integralnumber of patches, as represented in FIG. 9B. In the particular examplethe absolute address of the aligned patch in the memory would be(8×32+12, 6×32+16)=(268, 208).

If, however, a patch "p" is non-aligned, and has a misalignment(mx,my)=(2,1), for example, from the previously considered aligned patch"a" at patch address (12, 16) in page A at page address (8, 6), thensome of the pixels of patch "p" will need to be derived from three otheraligned patches "b", "c" and "d" having patch addresses (12+1, 16), (12,16+1) and (12+1, 16+1), or (13, 16), (12, 17) and (13, 17) in page A atpage address (8, 6). This situation is represented in FIGS. 10A and 10B.The absolute address of these patches "b", "c" and "d" in the VRAM 700are (269, 208), (268, 209) and (269, 209); respectively.

A further problem which arises in accessing a non-aligned patch "p" isthat the (x,y) address of each pixel in the patch "p" does notcorrespond to the bank address (bx,by) in the memory from which thatpixel is derived. In the particular example, the following pixelderivations and translations are required.

    ______________________________________                                                                          Translation                                                                   required from                                                                 bank address                                            Aligned patch                                                                            Bank address                                                                             (bx,by) to                                  Address (x,y) of                                                                          (px,py) from                                                                             (bx,by) from                                                                             pixel address                               pixel in non-aligned                                                                      which pixel                                                                              which pixel                                                                              (x,y) in                                    patch "p"   is derived is derived patch "p"                                   ______________________________________                                        (0,0)       a (12,16)  (2,1)      (-2,-1)                                     (1,0)       a (12,16)  (3,1)                                                  (2,0)       b (13,16)  (0,1)      (-2,-1)                                                                       mod 4                                       (3,0)       b (13,16)  (1,1)      (-2,-1)                                                                       mod 4                                       (0,1)       a (12,16)  (2,2)      (-2,-1)                                     (1,1)       a (12,16)  (3,2)      (-2,-1)                                     (2,1)       b (13,16)  (0,2)      (-2,-1)                                                                       mod 4                                       (3,1)       b (13,16)  (1,2)      (-2,-1)                                                                       mod 4                                       (0,2)       a (12,16)  (2,3)      (-2,-1)                                     (1,2)       a (12,16)  (3,3)      (-2,-1)                                     (2,2)       b (13,16)  (0,3)      (-2,-1)                                                                       mod 4                                       (3,2)       b (13,16)  (1,3)      (-2,-1)                                                                       mod 4                                       (0,3)       c (12,17)  (2,0)      (-2,-1)                                                                       mod 4                                       (1,3)       c (12,17)  (3,0)      (-2,-1)                                                                       mod 4                                       (2,3)       d (13,17)  (0,0)      (-2,-1)                                                                       mod 4                                       (3,3)       d (13,17)  (1,0)      (-2,-1)                                                                       mod 4                                       ______________________________________                                    

From the right hand column above, it will be noted that the translationfrom the bank address (bx,by) to the corresponding address in thenon-aligned patch is constant for a particular non-aligned patch and inparticular is equal to the negative of the misalignment (mx,my) of thenon-aligned patch "p" from the base aligned patch "a", all translationsbeing in modulus arithmetic with the modulus equal to the patchdimension.

Yet another further complication arises with non-aligned patches, andthat is that the patch may extend across the boundary between two orfour pages. To provide flexibility, not all pages which make up an imageand which are contiguous in the virtual address space need to be storedin the VRAM at one time, and pages are swapped between the paging memoryand the VRAM as required. This results in those pages making up an imagewhich are in the VRAM not necessarily being stored adjacent each otherin the VRAM, but possibly being scattered in non-contiguous areas of theVRAM.

For example, FIG. 11A represents four contiguous pages A, B, C, D in thevirtual address space. When these pages are swapped into the physicalmemory 700, they may be scattered at, for example, page addresses (8,6),(4,8), (12,12) and (6,10) in the VRAM, as represented in FIG. 11B Now,if it is desired to access a non-aligned patch "p" who base alignedpatch "a" in page A has an x or y patch address of 31, then thenon-aligned patch "p" may extend into page B, page C or pages B, C andD, depending on the direction of the misalignment. In the example shownspecifically in FIG. 11, the patch "p" to be accessed has a misalignment(mx,my)=(2,1) relative to base aligned patch "a" having patch address(px,py)=(31,31) in page A having page address (8,6) in the VRAM. It willbe appreciated that, in addition to translating accessed pixels betweentheir bank addresses (bx,by) and the addresses (x,y) in the non-alignedpatch as described above with reference to FIG. 10, it is also necessaryto determine the various pages B, C, D which are to be accessed inaddition to the basic page A and furthermore to determine the addressesin these other pages B, C, D of the aligned patches to be accessed, itbeing noted in the example that although the aligned patch "a" in page Ahas a patch address of (31,31), different patch addresses need to beused in other the pages B, C, D, that is (0,31), (31,0) and (0,0),respectively. The following table sets out, for each of the pixels inthe patch "p" to be accessed: the page and patch address of the alignedpatch from which that pixel is derived; the translation necessary fromthe patch address of the basic patch "a" in page A to the patch addressof the patch from which the pixel is derived; the bank address fromwhich the pixel is derived; and the translation necessary from thislatter address to the address of the pixel in the patch "p".

    __________________________________________________________________________                  Translation    Translation                                                    necessary      necessary                                               Page and                                                                             from address of                                                                              from bank                                               aligned patch                                                                        patch "a" to   address                                          Address (x,y)                                                                        from which                                                                           address (px,py)                                                                              (bx,by) to                                       of pixel in                                                                          pixel is                                                                             of patch from                                                                         Bank address                                                                         pixel address                                    non-aligned                                                                          derived                                                                              which pixel is                                                                        (bx,by) of                                                                           (x,y) in                                         patch "p"                                                                            P/(px,py)                                                                            derived pixel  patch "p"                                        __________________________________________________________________________    (0,0)  A/(31,31)a                                                                           (0,0)   (2,1)  (-2,-1)                                          (1,0)  A/(31,31)a                                                                           (0,0)   (3,1)  (-2,-1)                                          (2,0)  B/(0,31)b                                                                            (1,0) mod 32                                                                          (0,1)  (-2,-1) mod 4                                    (3,0)  B/(0,31)b                                                                            (1,0) mod 32                                                                          (1,1)  (-2,-1) mod 4                                    (0,1)  A/(31,31)a                                                                           (0,0)   (2,2)  (-2,-1)                                          (1,1)  A/(31,31)a                                                                           (010)   (3,2)  (-2,-1)                                          (2,1)  B/(0,31)b                                                                            (1,0) mod 32                                                                          (0,2)  (-2,-1) mod 4                                    (3,1)  B/(0,31)b                                                                            (1,0) mod 32                                                                          (1,2)  (-2,-1) mod 4                                    (0,2)  A/(31,31)a                                                                           (0,0)   (2,3)  (-2,-1)                                          (1,2)  A/(31,31)a                                                                           (0,0)   (3,3)  (-2,-1)                                          (2,2)  B/(0,31)b                                                                            (1,0) mod 32                                                                          (0,3)  (-2,-1) mod 4                                    (3,2)  B/(0,31)b                                                                            (1,0) mod 32                                                                          (1,3)  (-2,-1) mod 4                                    (0,3)  C/(31,0)c                                                                            (0,1) mod 32                                                                          (2,0)  (-2,-1) mod 4                                    (1,3)  C/(31,0)c                                                                            (0,1) mod 32                                                                          (3,0)  (-2,-1) mod 4                                    (2,3)  D/(0,0)d                                                                             (1,1) mod 32                                                                          (0,0)  (-2,-1) mod 4                                    (3,3)  D/(0,0)d                                                                             (1,1) mod 32                                                                          (1,0)  (-2,-1) mod 4                                    __________________________________________________________________________

A representation of the locations of the pixels in the four alignedpatches is shown in FIG. 11C.

In the example, the basic patch "a" has a patch address (px,py) of(31,31) and the non-aligned patch "p" to be accessed has a misalignment(mx, my) (2,1) relative to the basic patch "a". In the general case of abase patch address (px, py), where 0<=px, py<=31, and a misalignment(mx, my), where 0<=mx, my<=3, the table of FIG. 12 sets out which pageA, B, C or D should be used when accessing a pixel at bank address(bx,by), where 0<=bx,by<=3, in dependence up bx, by, mx, my, px and py,and the table of FIG. 13 sets out the X patch address px, or px+1 mod 4,and the Y patch address py, or py+1 mod 4, which should be used in orderto obtain the address of the aligned patch a, b, c or d to be accessed,in dependence upon bx, by, mx and my. The increment is calculated usingmodular arithmetic of base 32. It is also to be noted that for allpixels where (mx, my)<> (0,0), a translation of (-mx, -my) is requiredbetween the bank address (bx,by) from which the pixel is derived and theaddress (x,y) of the pixel in the non-aligned patch "p".

Having described various addressing functions which it is required to beperformed, there now follows a description in greater detail of theapparatus for performing these functions.

As described above with reference to FIG. 4, the VRAM 700 is addressedby the address processor 310 via the address translator 740,communicates data with the grid processor 312 via the exchange 326 andprovides data to the video processor 34. A greater degree of detail ofthe address translator, VRAM and exchange is shown in FIG. 14.

The address translator 740 receives a 48-bit virtual address on bus 319of a patch origin address. The translator determines whether therequired page(s) to access the addressed patch are resident in the VRAMphysical memory 700. If not, a page or superpage fault is flagged online 748, as will be described in detail below. However, if so, theaddress translator determines the addresses in the sixteen XY banks ofthe physical memory of the sixteen pixels making up the patch, andaddresses the memory 700 firstly with the Y addresses on the sixteensets of 9-bit lines A(0) to A(15) and then with the X addresses on theselines. The X and Y addresses are generated under control of the X/Yselect signal on line 713.

The exchange 326 includes a read surface shifter 742 and a write surfaceshifter 744. Pixel data is transferred, during a read operation, fromthe memory 700 to the read surface shifter 742 by a set of sixteen32-bit data lines D"(0) to D"(15), and, during a write operation, fromthe write surface shifter 744 to the memory 700 by the same data linesD"(0)to D"(15). The read and write surface shifters 742, 744 receive4-bit address data from the address translator on line 770, consistingof the least significant two bits of the X and Y address data. This datarepresents the misalignment (mx, my) of the accessed patch "p" from thebasic aligned patch "a". The purpose of the surface shifters is re-orderthe pixel data in non-aligned patches, that is to apply the translation(-mx, -my) when reading and an opposite translation (mx,my) whenwriting. Pixel data to be written is supplied by a crossbar 327 formingpart of the exchange 326 to the write surface shifter 744, and pixeldata which has been read is supplied by the read surface shifter 742 tothe crossbar 327, on the 512-bit line 750 made up of a set of 16 32-bitlines. The write surface shifter also receives on line 745 16-bit writeenable signals WE(0)-WE(15) from the crossbar 327 one for each pixel,and the write surface shifter 744 re-organises these signals inaccordance with the misalignment (mx, my) of the patch "p" to beaccessed to provide the sixteen column write enable signals WE"(0) toWE"(15). Each of these signals is then ANDed with a common CAS signal online 709 to form sixteen CAS signals CAS(O) to CAS(15), one for each ofthe sixteen banks of memory. This enables masking of pixels within apatch during writing, taking into account any misalignment of the patch.

The address translator 740 will now be described in more detailprimarily with reference to FIG. 15. The translator 740 includes asshown, a contents addressable memory (CAM) 754, a page address table756, a near-page-edge table 758, and X and Y incrementers 760X, 760Y.The translator 740 also includes sixteen sections 764(0) to 764(15), onefor each output address line A(0) to A(15), and thus for each memorybank B(0) to B(15).

The translator 740 receives a 48-bit virtual address of the origin (0,0)pixel of a patch on the bus 319. It will therefore be appreciated thatup to ₂ 48 (i.e. 281, 474, 976, 710, 656) different pixels can beaddressed. Many formats of the 48-bit address can be employed, but thefollowing example will be considered in detail.

    ______________________________________                                        BITS     IDENTITY                                                             ______________________________________                                        LSB  0,1     X misalignment (mx) of patch (p) to be accessed                               relative to basic aligned patch (a)                                   2-6     X address (px) of aligned patch (a) in page A                         7,8     X address of page A                                                    9-15   X portion of superpage address                                        16,17   Y misalignment (my) of patch (p) to be accessed                               relative to basic aligned patch (a)                                   18-22   Y address (py) of aligned patch (a) in page A                         23,24   Y address of page A                                                   25-31   Y portion of superpage address                                   MSB  32-47   Image ID portion of superpage address                            ______________________________________                                    

The bits identifying the superpage (i.e. bits 9 to 15, 25 to 31 and 32to 47) are supplied to the CAM 754. The CAM 754 is an associative memorydevice which compares the incoming 30-bit word with all of the wordsheld in its memory array, and if a match occurs it outputs the locationor address in the memory of the matching value on line 767. The CAM 754has a capacity of 128 32-bit words. Thirty of these bits are used tostore the virtual address of a superpage which is registered in the CAM754. Thus up to 128 superpages can be registered in the CAM. One of theother bits is used to flag any location in the CAM which is unused. Theremaining bit is spare. FIG. 16 illustrates how the CAM 754 operates.Upon input of a 30-bit superpage; address, e.g. 0123456 (hex), thisinput value is compared with each of the contents of the CAM. If a matchis found and provided the unused flag is not set, the address in the CAMof the match is output, e.g. 1 in the illustration. If no match is foundwith the contents at any of the 128 addresses of the CAM, then asuperpage fault is flagged on line 748S, and the required superpage isthen set up in the CAM in the manner described in detail later.

Referring back to FIG. 15, the 7-bit superpage identification outputfrom the CAM 754 on line 767 is used as part of an address for the pageaddress table 756, implemented by a 4 k word×16-bit SRAM. The remaining5 bits of the address for the page table 756 are made up by: bits 7, 8,23 and 24 of the virtual address which identify the page within asuperpage; and an X/Y select signal on line 713. The page table 756 hasregistered therein the X and Y page addresses in the VRAM 700 of: a) thebasic page A in which the pixel to be accessed is located; b) the page Bwhich is to the right of the page A in the virtual address space; c) thepage C which is above the page A in the virtual address space; and d)the page D which is to the right of page C and above page B in thevirtual address space, and these addresses are output on lines 771A to771D, respectively. If these pages A to D are required, but are notstored in the VRAM 700 and thus are not registered in the page table756, then a page fault is flagged on a line 748p (as described belowwith reference to FIG. 21) and the required page of data is then swappedinto the VRAM 700 in the manner described in detail below. However, ifall of the pages A to D which may possibly need to be accessed arestored, their addresses are made available on the lines 771A to 771D toall of the sections 764(0) to 764(15), the Y or X addresses being outputdepending on the state of the X/Y select signal on line 713.

Bits 2 to 6 and 188 to 22 of the virtual address are also supplied toeach of the sections 764(0) to 764(Z5) on lines 772X and 772Y. Thesedenote the patch address (px, py). The X and Y patch addresses togetherwith bits 0,1, 16 and 17 of the virtual address (,which indicate themisalignment tax, my of the patch p to be accessed) are also supplied tothe near-page-edge table 758, implemented using combinatorial logic,which provides a 2-bit output to the sections 764(0) to 764(15) on line774, with one bit being high only if the patch X address px is 31 andthe X misalignment mx is greater than zero and the other bit being highonly if the patch Y address py is 31 and the Y misalignment mv isgreater than zero.

Furthermore, the X and Y patch addresses (px, py) are also supplied tothe X and Y incrementers 760X, 760Y, and these incrementers supply theincremented values px+1, mod 32 and py+1, mod 32, to each of thesections 76/4(0) to 764(15) on lines 776X, 776Y.

The four bits 0,1, 16 and 17 giving the misalignment mx and my are alsosupplied to the sections 764(0) to 764(15) on lines 770X, 770Y and arealso supplied to the surface shifters 742, 744, on line 770.

Each section 764(0) to 764(15) comprises: a page selection logic circuit778; X and Y increment select logic circuits 780X 780Y; X and Y 4=:14-bit page address multiplexers 782X, 782Y; X and Y 2=1% bit patchaddress multiplexers 784X, 784Y; and a 2:1 9-bit address selectionmultiplexer 786.

The page selection logic circuit 778 implemented using combinatoriallogic, provides a 2-bit signal to the page address multiplexers 782X,Yto control which page address A, B, C or D to use. The page selectionlogic circuit 778 performs this selection by being configured to act asa truth table which corresponds to the table of FIG. 12. The circuit 778receives the 2-bit signal on line 774 from the near-page-edge table 758and this determines which of the four columns of the table of FIG. 12 touse. The circuit 778 also receives the misalignment (mx, my) on lines770X, 770Y, and this data in combination with which section 764(0) to764(15) (and thus which bx and by applies) determines which of the fourrows in FIG. 12 to use. The X and Y page address multiplexers 782X, 782Ytherefore supply appropriate page address as four bits to complementaryinputs of the X/Y address selection multiplexer 786.

The increment selection logic circuits 780X, 780Y, which are implementedusing combinatorial logic, receive the respective X and Y misalignmentsmx, my and provide respective 1-bit signals to control the patch addressmultiplexers 784X, 784Y. The increment selection circuits perform thisselection by being configured to act as truth tables which correspond tothe upper and lower parts, respectively, of the table of FIG. 13. Itwill be noted that selection depends upon the misalignment mx or my incombination with the bx or by position of the memory bank (and thuswhich of the sections 764(0) to 764(15) is being considered). The X andY patch address multiplexers 784X, 784Y therefore output the appropriate5-bit patch addresses px or px+1 (mod. 32) and py or py+1 (mod. 32)which are combined with the X and Y page addresses at the inputs to theX/Y selection multiplexers 786. This latter multiplexer receives as itscontrol signal the X/Y selection signal on line 713 and thereforeoutputs the 9-bit X or Y address appropriate to the particular section764(0) to 764(15).

The address translator 740 therefore deals with the problems describedabove of addressing pixels from different aligned patches a, b, c, d inthe memory 700 when a patch "p" to be accessed is misaligned, and ofaddressing pixels from different pages A, B, C, D in the memory 700 whena patch "p" to be accessed extends across the boundary of the basic pageA.

It is still necessary also to perform a translation of the pixelpositions in the accessed patch of (-mx,-my) if reading, or (mx,my) ifwriting. This is performed by the surface shifter 7142 for reading andthe surface shifter 744 for writing. The read surface shifter 742 willnow be described with reference to FIGS. 17 and 18.

The read surface shifter 742 comprises a pair of 4×4 32-bit barrelshifters, 788X, 788Y. The X barrel shifter 788X has four banks 790X(0)to 790(3) of multiplexers arranged in one direction, and the outputs ofthe X barrel shifter 788X are connected to the inputs of the Y barrelshifter 788Y, which has four banks 790Y(0) to 790Y(3) of multiplexersarranged in the orthogonal direction. As control signals, the X and Ybarrel shifters 788X, Y receive the X and Y misalignments mx, my,respectively.

One of the banks of muliplexers 790X(0) is shown in greater detail inFIG. 18, and comprises four 32-bit 4:1 multiplexers 792(0) to 792(3).The data from bank (0,0) is supplied to inputs 0, 3, 2 and 1,respectively, of the multiplexers 792(0) to 792(3). The data from bank(1,0) is supplied to inputs 1, 0, 3 and 2, respectively, of themultiplexers 792(0) to 792(3). The data from bank (2,0) is supplied tothe inputs 2, 1, 0 and 3, respectively, of the multiplexers 792(0) and792(3). The remaining data from bank (3,0) is supplied to the remaininginputs 3, 2, 1, 0, respectively, of the multiplexers 792(0) to 792(3).The other banks of multiplexers 790X(1) to 790X(3) in the X barrelshifter 788X are similarly connected, and the banks 790Y(0) to 790Y(3)in the Y barrel shifter 788Y are also similarly connected. It willtherefore be appreciated that the read surface shifter performs atranslation with wrap-around in the -X direction of mx positions and atranslation with wrap-around in the -Y direction of my positions asshown in FIG. 19.

As shown in the drawings, the write surface shifter 744 may be providedby a separate circuit to the read surface shifter. In this case thewrite surface shifter is configured similarly to the read surfaceshifter, except that the inputs 1 and 3 to the multiplexers 792 in thebarrel shifter banks are transposed. This results in translations of +mxand +my in the X and Y directions, rather than -mx and -my for the readsurface shifter. The part of the write surface shifter which operates onthe write enable signals WE(0) to WE(15) is identical to the part whichoperates on the data signals, except that the signals are 1-bit, ratherthan 32-bit.

As an alternative to employing separate circuits for the read and writesurface shifters 742, 744, a single circuit may be employed, withappropriate data routing switches, and in this case translation providedby the surface shifter may be switched between (-mx, -my) and (+mx,+my), in dependence upon whether the memory is being read or written, asdescribed with reference to FIGS. 46 and 47.

As mentioned above, if a required superpage is not registered in the CAM754, then a superpage fault is flagged, on line 748S. This superpagefault is used to interrupt the address processor 310, which isprogrammed to perform a superpage interrupt routine as follows. Firstly,the address processor checks whether the CAM 754 has any space availablefor a new superpage to be registered. If not, the address processorselects a registered superpage which is to be abandoned in the mannerdescribed below and causes the, or each, page of that superpage which isstored in the VRAM 700 to be copied to its appropriate location in thepaging memory. The registration of that superpage is then cancelled fromthe CAM 754. Secondly, the new superpage is registered in the CAM 754 atthe, or one of the, available locations.

In order to select which superpage to abandon, a determination is madeas to which is the least recently used (LRU),superpage which isregistered in the CAM 754. To do this, a 128×16-bit LRU table 802 isprovided, as illustrated in FIG. 20. Each of the 128 addressesrepresents a respective one of the superpages registered in the CAM 754.The 7-bit superpage identification output from the CAM 754 on line 767is used to address the LRU table 802 each time the superpageidentification changes, as detected by the change detector 804. Thechange detector 804 also serves to increment a 16-bit counter 806, andthe content of the counter 806 is written to the addressed location inthe LRU table 802.

Accordingly, for all of the registered superpages, the LRU tablecontains an indication of the order in which those superpages were lastused. When registering a new superpage in the CAM 754, the addressprocessor 310 checks the contents of the LRU table 802 to determinewhich superpage has the lowest count and in that way decides whichsuperpage to abandon.

As also mentioned above, if the required pages of the registeredsuperpage are not stored in the VRAM 700, a page fault is flagged, online 748P. The page fault generator is shown in FIG. 21, and comprises apage fault table 794 constituted by a 2 k×4-bit SRAM, a set of three ANDgates 796B, C, D and an OR gate 798. The page fault table 794 isaddressed by the 7-bit superpage identity code on line 767, and by the Xand Y page addresses on line 768X, Y. At each address, the page faulttable 794 contains a 4-bit flag in which the bits denote whether thebasic addressed page A and the pages B, C and D, respectively, to theright, above, and to the right and above, page A are stored in the VRAM700. The page B flag is ANDed by gate 796B with the bit of thenear-page-edge signal on line 774, denoting whether the patch "p" to beaccessed extends across the boundary between pages A and B. Similarly,the page C flag is ANDed by gate 796C with the bit of the near-page-edgesignal on line 774 denoting whether the patch "p" to be accessed extendsacross the boundary between pages A and C. Furthermore, the page D flagis ANDed by gate 796D with both bits of the near-page-edge signal, whichin combination denote whether the patch "p" to be accessed extends inpage D above page B and to the right of page C. The outputs of the threeAND gate 796B, C, D and the page A flag are then ORed by the OR gate798, the output of which provides the page fault flag on line 748P.

From the above, it will be appreciated that a page fault is alwaysgenerated if the basic page A is not stored in the VRAM, but if page B,C or D is not stored in the memory, a page fault will be generated inresponse thereto only if the respective page B, C or D will be used, asindicated by the two bits of the near-page-edge signal on line 774.

The page fault signal on line 748P is used to interrupt the addressprocessor 310. The address processor then searches a table in its PRAM318 for a spare page address in the VRAM 700, causes the required pageto be swapped into the VRAM at the spare page address, and update thetable in its PRAM 318.

GRID PROCESSOR AND EXCHANGE

As described above with reference to FIG. 4, in the operation of thepreferred embodiment, the exchange 326 and the VRAM 700 communicate inpatches of sixteen pixels of data, each pixel having 32 bits.Furthermore, the grid processor 312 has sixteen processors, each ofwhich processes pixel data and communicates with the exchange 326. Also,the grid processor 312 and the address processor 310 can communicateaddress data via the FIFO 332.

The exchange 326 includes a crossbar 377, and a logical implementationof the crossbar 377 and of the grid processor 312 is shown in moredetail in FIG. 22. As shown, the crossbar 377 comprises sixteen 16:132-bit data multiplexers 602(0) to 602(15); sixteen 16:11-bit writeenable multiplexers 603(0) to 603(15); a 512-bit bidirectional FIFO 604for pixel data; and a 16-bit bidirectional FIFO 605 for the write enablesignals. During a read operation, the 16 pixels of a 4×4 patch aresupplied from the VRAM 700 (FIG. 8) via the read surface shifter 742 andvia the FIFO 604 as data D(0) to D(15) to the sixteen inputs of eachdata multiplexer 602(0) to 602(15). During a write operation, the datamultiplexers 602(0) to 602(15) supply data D(0) to 0(15) via the FIFO604 and the write surface shifter to 744 the VRAM and the write enablemultiplexers 603(0) to 603(15) supply write enable signals WE(0) toWE(15) via the FIFO 605 to the write surfaces shifter 744. The FIFOs604, 605 and also the FIFO 332 are employed so that the grid processor312 does not need to be stalled to take account of different accessspeeds of the VRAM 700 in dependence upon whether page-mode ofnon-page-mode access is taking place.

Each of the data multiplexers 602(0) to 602 (15) is associated with arespective one of sixteen processors 606(0) to 606(15) and communicatestherewith respective data signals D'(0) to D'(15), which are logically32 bits, but which in practice may be implemented physically as 16 bits,with appropriate multiplexing techniques. The data signals D'(0) toD'(15) are also supplied to respective parts of the bus 331. Also, eachof the write enable multiplexers 603(0) to 603(15) is associated with arespective one of the sixteen processors 606(0) to 605(15) to 606(15)which supply respective 1-bit write enable signals WE'(0) to WE'(15) tothe write enable multiplexers. Each processor 606(0) to 606(15) providesa logical control signal CO(0) to CO(15) to control both its associateddata multiplexer 602 and write enable nultiplexer 603. Thus, duringwriting to the memory, any processor may provide any respective one ofthe data signals by providing the number 0 to 15 of the required datasignal as its control signal to its data and write enable multiplexers.Furthermore, during reading from the memory, any processor may read anyof the data signals by providing the number 0 to 15 of the required datasignal to its data multiplexer. Thus, there is no restriction on databeing processable only relative to a particular processor, and eachprocessor can select and control the routing of its own data.

The crossbar 377 shown in FIG. 22 is simplified for reasons of clarity,and shows, for example, bi-directional multiplexers, which in practiceare difficult to implement. A modified form of the exchange,incorporating the crossbar and the surface shifters, is shown in FIG.46.

The exchange of FIG. 46 comprises sixteen sections, of which one typicalsection 326(i) is shown for simplicity. The data D"(i) from the memoryis supplied via a buffer BA(i) and register RA(i) to one input of a 2:1multiplexer SA(i) acting as a two-way switch. The output of the switchSA(i) is fed to an input i of the surface shifter 743 which performssurface shifting for read and for write. The corresponding output i ofthe surface shifter 743 is fed to one input of a multiplexer switchSB(i) and is also fed back to the data D"(i) input via a register RB(i)and a tri-state buffer BB(i). The output of the switch SB(i) is input toa FIFO(i), the output of which forms the other input of switch SA(i) andis also fed to one input of a further switch SC(i). The set of sixteendata lines D(0) to D(15) connect the exchange sections 326(0) to 326(15)and the output of switch D(i) is connected to data line D(i). In thegeneral case, the output of each switch SC(0) to SC(15) is connected tothe data line of the same number.

The sixteen inputs of a 16:1 multiplexer MUX(i) are connected to thedata lines D(0) to D(15), and the output of the multiplexe MUX(i) isconnected via a register RC(i) and a tri-state buffer BC(i) to therespective processor PROC(i) via the data line D'(i). The output of themultiplexer MUX(i) is also connected to the other input of switch SB(i).Furthermore, the data line D'(i) frown the processor PROC(i) is alsoconnected via a buffer BD(i) and a register RD(i) to the other input ofthe switcth SC(i).

The control signal CO(i) for the multiplexer MUX(i) is provided by aswitch SD(i) which can select between a hardwired value i or the outputof a register RE(i)which receives its input from the output of theregister

Also, control signals CSB, CSC, CSD and CBC are supplied to thenultiplexer switches SB(0) to (15), the multiplexer switches SC(0) to(15), the multiplexer switches SD(0) to SD(15), the tri-state buffersBC(0) to (15) from the microcode memory 308 (FIG. 4) of the processingsection 321. Furthermore, control signals CSA, CBB and CSS derived fromthe microcode memory 307 of the address processing section 309 aresupplied to the multiplexer switches SA(0) to (15), the tristate buffersBB(0) to (15) and the surface shifter 743.

The exchange 326 of FIG. 46 is operable in three modes. In a read mode,the processors PROC(0) to PROC(15) can read the memory; in a write mode,they can write to the memory; and in a transfer mode, they can transferpixel data between each other. The values of the control signals forthese three modes are as follows:

    ______________________________________                                               CSA   CSB    CSC     CSD  CBB   CBC  CSS                               ______________________________________                                        READ     0       0      0     0/1  0     1    0                               WRITE    1       1      1     0/1  1     0    1                               TRANSFER X       X      1     1    X     0/1  X                               ______________________________________                                    

It should be noted that the control signal CSD can select between a"straight-through" mode in which each multiplexer MUX(i) selects itsinput and thus data D(i), or a "processor-selection" mode in which itselects an input j and thus data D(j) in accordance with the value jwhich the processor has loaded into the register

The effective configuration of a generalised one of the exchangesections 326(i) of FIG. 46 in the read mode is shown in FIG. 47A. Inthis configuration, the data path from the data line D"(i) is via theregister RA(i) to the surface shifter 743. In the read mode, the surfaceshifter applies a shift of (-mx,-my) (mod. 4) to the data paths. Fromthe surface shifter, the data path continues via the FIFO(i) to the dataline D(i). The multi-plexer MUX(i) can select if CSD=0 thestraight-through path in which its output is D(i), or if CSD=1 theprocessor selection path in which its output is were j is the valueloaded into the register RE(i). The output data passes via the registerRC(i) as data D'(i) to the processor PROC(i).

The effective configuration of the exchange section 326(i) in the writemode is shown in FIG. 47B. The data D'(i) from the respective processorPROC(i) passes via the register RD(i) to the data line D(i). Themultiplexer MUX(i) can se t, if CSD=0, the straight-through path inwhich its output is D(i), or if CSD=1 the processor selection path inwhich its output is D(j) where j is the value loaded into the registerRE(i). The output data passes via the FIFO(i) to the surface shifter743. In the write mode, the surface shifter applies a shift (+mx,+my)(mod. 4) to the data paths. From the surface shifter, the data pathcontinues via the register RB(i) as data D"(i) to the VRAM 700.

It should be noted from FIGS. 46 and 47B that, in the write mode, thewrite-enable signal follows the same path WE'(i) to WE(i) to WE"(i) asthe data signal path D'(i) to D(i) to D"(i). Thus these paths arelogically 33 bits made up from 32 bits for the data signal and 1 bit forthe write-enable signal.

In the transfer mode, the effective configuration of the exchangesection 326(i) is as shown in FIG. 47C. In this configuration thecontrol signal CSD to the switch SD(i) is set to 1 so that themultiplexer MUX(i) receives as its control signal the value j loadedinto the register RE(i). There are four phases to a transfer. In thefirst phase the processors output the values j of the data D(i) whichthey wish to receive as the lowest four bits of their data lines, andthese values j are clocked into the registers RD(i). In the secondphase, the processors output the data to be transferred out, and thisdata is clocked into the registers RD(i), while the values j are clockedout of the registers RD(i) and into the registers RE(i), thus settingthe multiplexers MUX(i) to receive the data on the respectively selectedlines D(j). In the third phase, the data in the registers RD(i) isclocked out onto the lines D and each multiplexer MUX(i) receives andoutputs the data on respectively selected line D(j). In the fourthphase, the outputs of the multiplexers are clocked into the registersRC(i) and the tristate buffers BC(i) are enabled so that the processorscan transfer in the data from the buffers BC(i). Thus, each processorPROC(i) receives the data (j) from the processor PROC(j) which wasselected by the processor PROC(i) by its output value, j in the firstphase.

Referring back to FIG. 22, the processors 606(0) are connected to thedata broadcast bus 323 and to a priority encoder 614 having 16 sectionsand which is associated with the sequencer 329. The processors 606(0) to606(15) communicate address data with the data broadcast bus 323 and theFIFO 332 connects the data broadcast bus 323 with the address processor310. The processors 606(0) to 606(15) can also supply respective"unsatisfied" signals US(0) to US(15) and respective "X waiting" signalsXW(0) to XW(15) to the respective sections of the priority encoder andcan receive respective "process enable" signals EN(0) to EN(15) from therespective sections of the priority encoder 614. Lastly, the priorityencoder 614 has a sequencer enable (SE) output on line 618 to thesequencer 329 which controls the sequence of processing of a series ofmicrocode instructions by the processors 606.

The purpose of the priority encoder 614 is to provide high efficiency inthe accessing by the processors 606 of the memory 700. In order to dothis, the encoder 614 and processors perform the following process,which is shown in the flow diagram of FIG. 23. In FIG. 23, the left-handthree columns contain steps which are taken by the processors 606(0) . .. 606(i) . . . 606(15), or PROC(0) . . . PROC(i) . . . PROC(15), inparallel with each other, the right-hand column contains steps performedby the priority encoder.

At the beginning of each microcode instruction, there are a series ofinitialisation steps 620 to 628. In steps 620 to 625, those processorswhich require access to the memory set (1) their respective unsatifiedsignals US and reset (0) their X waiting signals XW, and thoseprocessors which do not require access reset (0) their unsatisfiedsignals US and their X waiting signals XW. In steps 626, 628, thepriority encoder resets (0) the process enable signals EN for all of theprocessors and also resets (0) the sequencer enable signal SE.

After initialisation, the priority encoder 614 checks through the XWsignals, starting with XW(0) in step 630 to find any processor which isX waiting, and if a match is found (step 632) at a processor, designatedPROC(q), then the routine proceeds to step 640. If a match is not found,however, in step 632, then the priority encoder checks through the USsignals, starting with US(0) in step 634 to find a processor which isunsatisfied, and if a match is found (step 636) for a processor,designated PROC(q), then the routine proceeds to step 640. If a match isnot found, however, in step 636, then this indicates that all processorsare satisfied, and accordingly the microcode program can proceed.Therefore, the sequence enable signal SE is set in step 638, and theroutine terminates.

In step 640, the process enable signal EN(q) for the selected processorPROC(q) is set. In steps 642, each processor determines whether it isunsatisfied, and if not exits the subroutine of steps 642 to 654. Forany processor which is unsatisfied, then in steps 644, that processordetermines whether it is the selected processor, and if so supplies, instep 645, to the data broadcast bus 323 as (xq, yq) the virtual addressof the base pixel (0,0) of the patch of pixel data which it wishes toprocess. This address is supplied via the FIFO 332 to the addressprocessor 310, which in response accesses the appropriate locations inthe memory 700, swapping in and out pages of pixel data, if required, asdescribed above.

Then, in steps 646, each unsatisfied processor determines whether the yaddress yi of its required patch of pixel data is equal to the y addressyq of the patch which is being accessed. If not, then the processorexits the subroutine of steps 642 to 654. If, however, yi=yq, then instep 648 the processor determines whether the X address xi of itsrequired patch of pixel data is equal to the X address xq of the patchwhich is being accessed. If so, then the processor resets (0) itsunsatisfied signal US(i) and X waiting signal XW(i) in step 650, andaccesses the memory for read or write, as appropriate, in step 652. Theprocessor then exits the subroutine of steps 642 to 654. If, in step648, xi<>xq then in step 654 the X waiting signal XW(i) is set (1), andthen the subroutine is exited.

Upon exit frown the subroutine of steps 642 to 654 of all processorsPROC(0) to PROC(15), the routine proceeds to step 656, where thepriority encoder resets (0) the process enable signal EN(q) for theselected processor. The routine then loops back to step 630.

It will be appreciated from the above that (A) the lowest numberedprocessor (an arbitrary choice) which is unsatisfied is selected andgiven access to the memory initially, together with any other processorswhich require access to the same address as that selected processor.Then, (B) of any remaining unsatisfied processors which require accessto the same y address as the selected processor, the lowest numberedprocessor is given access, together with any other processors requiringthe same address. Then, (C) of any remaining unsatisfied processorswhich require access to the same y address as the last satisfiedprocessor, the lowest numbered processor is given access, together withany other processors which require access to the same address. Step C isrepeated, if necessary, and then steps A and B are repeated until all ofthe processors have been satisfied. The next microcode instructionsequence is then processed.

As example of the operation of the priority encoder and processors inaccessing the memory will now be described with reference to the tableof FIG. 24. In the example, PROC(0) to (3) and (8) to (11) requireaccess to the patches having the base pixel X and Y addresses listed incolumn 660 of the table, the addresses being in hexadecimal notation.Thus, after the initialisation routine, US(0) to (3) and (8) to (11) areset to 1 and the other US signals and the XW signals are reset to 0, asshown in column 662.

In the first loop of the main routine, PROC(0) is selected, i.e. q=0,and thus accesses the memory at (1234, 1234). Because PROC(1) requiresthe same address, it also becomes satisfied, i.e. US(1)=0, and accessesthe memory at (1234, 1234). Furthermore, because PROC(2) and PROC(10)require the same Y address as PROC(0), they become X waiting, i.e.XW(2)=XW(10)=1. This is shown in column 664.

In the next loop of the main routine, PROC(2) is found to be X waitingXW(2)=1), and thus PROC(2) is selected, i.e. q=2. Therefore PROC(2)becomes satisfied, (US(2)=XW(2)=0), as shown in column 666, and accessesthe memory at (1235, 1234).

In the next loop of the routine, PROC(10) is found to be X waitingXW(10)=1), and thus PROC(10) is selected, i.e. q=10. Therefore PROC(10)becomes satisfied, (US(10)=XW(10)=0), as shown in column 668, andaccesses the memory at (1236, 1234).

In the next loop of the routine, no processor is found to be X waiting,and PROC(3) is found to be the first completely unsatisfied processor,i.e. US(3)=1, YS(3)=0. Therefore PROC(3) is selected (q=3), becomessatisfied (US(3)=XW(3)=0) and accesses the memory at (1235, 1235). Alsobecause PROC(11) has the same Y address as PROC(3), PROC(11) becomes Xwaiting, i.e. XW(11)=1, as shown in column 670.

In the next loop of the routine, PROC(11) is found to be the only Xwaiting processor, (US(11)=XW(11)=1). Therefore, PROC(11) is selected(q=11), becomes satisfied (US(11)=XW(11)=0) and accesses the memory at(1236, 1235), as shown in column 672.

In the next loop of the routine, PROC(8) is found to be the firstunsatisfied processor (US(8)=1). Therefore, PROC(8) is selected (q=8),becomes satisfied, and accesses the memory at (1234, 1236). Furthermore,because PROC(9) requires the same address, it also becomes satisfied(US(9)=0) and accesses the memory.

During the next loop of the routine, no processors are found to beunsatisfied, and therefore the sequence enable signal SE is set and thenext microcode instruction is processed.

By using the priority encoder as described above, processors whichrequire access to the same patch can access that patch simultaneously.Furthermore, when a plurality of processors require access to differentpatches having the same Y address, their accesses are made immediatelyone after the other, in "page mode". Therefore the address translatordoes not need to re-latch the Y address(es) in the Y address latches706(0) to (15) (FIGS. 8 and 14) between such accesses. Thus, aconsiderable improvement in performance is achieved as compared with acase where the processors PROC(0) to (15) access their required patchesone at a time, sequentially and without reference to any similaritybetween the addresses to be accessed.

In the system described above, up to sixteen pixels in a patch areprocessed in parallel by sixteen processors. Preferably, the system isalso arranged so that a group of patches, for example, up to 32 patches,are processed in series in order to reduce pipeline start and finishoverheads. In this case, the method of operation may be modified, ascompared with that shown in FIG. 23, in order to increase efficiency, bypermitting any processor requiring access to, say, a jth pixel in thegroup to request that pixel without firstly waiting for all the otherprocessors to complete access to their (j-1)th pixels in the group. Todo this, between steps 623 and 630 in FIG. 23, for each processor thestep "set address of first required pixel in group as (xi, yi)" isincluded for each processor PROC(i). Furthermore, steps 650 and 652 foreach processor as shown in FIG. 23 are replaced by the steps shown inFIG. 48. In step 682, the memory is accessed at address xi, yi for theparticular processor PROC(i). Then, in step 684, it is determinedwhether or not the processor PROC(i) requires access to a further pixelin the group, and if not in step 686, the unsatisfied flag US(i) and theX waiting flag XW(i) are both reset to 0, similarly to step 650 in FIG.23. However, if so in step 684, then in step 688 the processor PROC(i)sets the address of the next required pixel as (xi, yi). Then, in step690, it is determined whether or not the new y address yi is equal tothe Y address yq of the last accessed pixel. If so, then in step 692,the X waiting flag XW(i) is set to 1, whereas if not, then in step 694,the X waiting flag XW(i) is reset to 0. After steps 692 or 694, theroutine proceeds to step 656 as in FIG. 23. It will therefore beappreciated that, once any processor has accessed a pixel in its seriesof required thirty-two pixels, it can immediately make itself ready toaccess the next pixel in its series, irrespective of how many of theirrequired thirty-two pixels each of the other processors has accessed.This therefore makes good use of the page mode accessing of the VRAM inwhich a series of pixels with the same Y address are accessed withoutthe need to re-latch the Y address between each access.

A problem which can arise with the modification of FIG. 48 is that someof the processors can inordinately race ahead of others of theprocessors in accessing their thirty-two pixels. For example, in thecase where the processors require access to many different Y addresses,it may arise that PROC(0) accesses all of its thirty-two required pixelsfirst, then PROC(1) accesses its thirty-two pixels, and so on. In orderto obviate this problem, the following further modification may be made.Basically, access is permitted with the following order of priority: (a)of highest priority, processors which require access in page-mode (i.e.with the same Y address as the last access) are arbitrated for access;(b) of second priority, processors which have progressed least throughtheir series of thirty-two accesses are arbitrated for access; and (c)of lowest priority there is arbitrary selection of any processors stillrequiring access. This is achieved by maintaining in a register file ofeach processor a respective local pointer LP(i) indicating which of its32 accesses it is waiting for, a common low watermark pointer WM for allthe processors, and a common high watermark pointer HP for all theprocessors. Furthermore, the significance of each unsatisfied flag US(i)is FIGS. 23 and 48 is modified so that US(i)=1 only if LP(i)=WM and theprocessor PROC(i) is unsatisfied. The process of FIGS. 23 and 48 is thenmodified as follows. In the initialisation steps 622 to 625, theadditional steps are included of resetting to zero LP(i) and WM in theregister files of all processors, and setting HP to the number ofaccesses in the series, usually 31. The step 642 in FIG. 23 is replacedby "LP(i)<>HP?". Furthermore, accompanying step 682 in FIG. 48, where aprocessor accesses the memory, it also increments it local pointer toLP(i)+1. This then has the affect of dealing with priorities "a" and "b"described above. In order to deal with the priority "c" above, anadditional decision is included between steps 636 and 638 in FIG. 23. Ifthe low watermark pointer WM is less than the high pointer HP, then thelow watermark pointer in each of the processor register files isincremented to WM+1, and the process loops back to step 630. However, ifWM=31 the process proceeds to step 638. From the above, it will beappreciated that the low watermark pointer is always less than or equalto the lowest local pointer LP(i). When there is no page mode, onlythose processors whose local pointer LP(i) is equal to the low watermarkpointer WM are initially involved in the access arbitration. If thereare none, the watermark pointer is incremented, unless it is equal toHP.

SPLIT-LEVEL PATCHES

It will be noted from the above that the memory is capable of staringpixel data of 32 bits and that the grid processor is capable ofprocessing pixel data logically of at least 32 bits. In someapplications, pixel data having a resolution as great as 32 bits is notneeded, and that may be required is 16-bit or 8-bit pixel data. In suchcases it is possible to use only 16 or 8 bits of the 32 bits availablefor each pixel but this would then result in the VRAM not being used toits full capacity, and pages of pixel data would need to be swappedbetween the VRAM and the paging memory more often than is necessary.

It may therefore be considered expedient to split the whole image memoryinto two for 16-bit data, or four for 8-bit data, and thus overlay wholepages of data one on top of another. This would make available the wholecapacity of the VRAM, but would suffer from the disadvantage that severecomplications would arise when swapping, for example, just one page of16-bit or 8-bit data between the VRAM and page memory, because it wouldbe necessary to select only half or a quarter of the stored data fortransfer from the VRAM to the paging memory, and it would be necessaryto mask off half or three-quarters of the VRAM when transferring a pageof data from the paging memory to the VRAM.

There now follows a description of an arrangement which avoids theseproblems associated with transfer of 16-bit or 8-bit data between theVRAM and paging memories.

In essence, the data is overlaid so that at no single address for eachof the 128 VRAMs 710 does there exist data for more than one page. Thisis achieved by overlaying the 8- or 16-bit pixel data in units of apixel, or more preferably units of a patch, as described below.

Referring to FIG. 25, an aligned set of memory cells C(0) to C(127), onefrom each VRAM chip, and each 4 bits wide, is shown. In the 32-bitarrangement described above, these cells form an aligned patch of 4×4pixels.

In the 16-bit patch-overlay modification, these cells form two layersL(0), L(1) of a 8×4 patch. L(0) is provided by C(0) to (3), C(8) to(11), C(16) to (19) . . . C(120) to (123). L(1) is provided by theremaining cells C(4) to (7), C(12) to (15), C(20) to (27) . . . C(124)to (127). When the image represented by the two layers of the patch isto be displayed, layer L(0) is displayed immediately to the left of thelayer L(1), as shown in FIG. 25.

In the 8-bit patch-overlay modification the cells form four layers L(0)to (3) of 16 pixel×4 pixel patch. The layers are provided by the cellsas follows:

Layer L(0): C(0), C(1), C(8), C(9) . . . C(120), C(121)

Layer L(1): C(2), C(3), C(l0), C(11) . . . C(122), C(123)

Layer L(2): C(4), C(5), C(12), C(13) . . . C(124), C(125)

Layer L(3): C(6), C(7), C(14), C(15) . . . C(126), C(127)

When the image represented by the four layers of a patch is to bedisplayed, the layers are displayed left to right in the order L(0),L(1), L(2), L(3).

A different address format needs to be employed when using 16-bit and8-bit overlayed patches as compared with that used for the morestraightforward 32-bit case, and is given in the table below:

    ______________________________________                                                     BITS OF VIRTUAL ADDRESS                                                       32-bit mode                                                                           16-bit mode                                                                             8-bit mode                                     ______________________________________                                        X misalignment 0,1       0,1       0,1                                        Level          --        2         2,3                                        X patch address                                                                              2-6       3-7       4-8                                        X page address 7,8       8         --                                         X portion of superpage                                                                        9-15      9-15      9-15                                      address                                                                       Y misalignment 16,17     16,17     16,17                                      Y patch address                                                                              18-22     18-22     18-22                                      Y page address 23,24     23,24     23,24                                      Y portion of superpage                                                                       25-31     25-31     25-31                                      address                                                                       Image ID portion of                                                                          32-47     32-47     32-47                                      superpage address                                                             ______________________________________                                    

It will be noted that, between the different modes, there is no changeof identity of the sixteen bits representing the image ID (32-47), thesixteen bits representing the Y address (16-31), the seven bitsrepresenting the X portion of the superpage address (9-15), and the twoX misalignment bits (0,1). The X patch address is, however, representedby bits 2-6 for 32-bit mode, by bits 3-7 for 16-bit mode, and by bits4-8 for 8-bit mode. This makes available bit 2 in the 16-bit mode, andthe two bits 2 and 3 in the 8-bit mode, to provide the level data, andleaves only one bit 8 in the 16-bit mode, and no bits in the 8-bit mode,for the X page address.

The patch and page arrangements and the address notations used for themare represented in FIGS. 26-29. FIG. 26 shows the arrangement of patchesin a single 16-bit page, and FIG. 27 shows the arrangement of 8 pages inone complete 16-bit superpage. FIG. 28 shows the arrangement of patchesin a single 8-bit page, and FIG. 29 shows the arrangement of 4 pages inone complete 8-bit superpage.

A number of complications arise when dealing with 16- or 8-bit data.Firstly, it is necessary to ensure that the X bits of the address areused in the proper manner. In order to do this, the supply of data fromthe virtual address bus 319 to the page table 756, near page edge table758 and X patch address incrementor 760X as shown in FIG. 15A ismodified as shown in FIG. 30A. As before, the page Y bits, 23,24 are feddirectly to the page table 756 and the patch Y bits, 18-22 are feddirectly to the patch Y address multiplexers 784Y, etc. However, the Xbits 2-8 (which form the page and patch X addresses in the 32-bitversion) are input to a funnel shifter 812. The shift provided by thefunnel shifter is controlled by a mode select signal MS on line 814which is generated by a separate circuit in response to image headerinformation provided prior to an image or graphics processing operationand which indicates whether the pixel data is 32-, 16- or 8-bit. Thefunnel shifter provides a page address of up to two bits, a 5-bit patchX address, and the level data L of up to two bits. The relationshipbetween the inputs to and outputs from the funnel shifter 812 is shownin the table of FIG. 31, and it will be noted that it corresponds to therequired shifting derivable from the table set out above.

The next complication arises due to the need to present the 16- or 8-bitpixels to the grid processor during reading such that the appropriate 16or 8 bits of each pixel will be processed and not the remainingirrelevant 16 or 24 bits. This complication is overcome by supplying,during a read operation, all 32 bits from a location in the memory tothe grid processor, together with shift data ZSFT in response to whichthe grid processor shifts the read pixel data by an amount correspondingto the ZSFT data, and then processes predetermined bits of the shiftdata, e.g. bits 0-15 for 16-bit processing, or bits 0-7 for 8-bitprocessing.

A further complication arises due to the possibility of a read patch ofdata not being aligned with the patch level boundaries. Thiscomplication is overcome in a somewhat similar manner to that describedabove with respect to 32-bit patches not being aligned with the patchboundaries in the memory. To illustrate the above, reference is made toFIG. 32, which shows a 16-bit patch p in which the base pixel is inlevel L=1 of base patch a at (12,16) and is misaligned (mx,my)=(2,1).The address of the patch p in its respective page would therefore be(px,py)=(12,16); L=1; (mx,my)=(2,1). It will be seen that, because patchp has a non-zero x misalignment, mx>0, part of the patch is at the otherlevel L=0, and furthermore because both mx>0 and the level of the basepixel is 1, part of the patch p is in another aligned patch b havingpatch address (13,16). Furthermore, because also the y misalignmentmy>0, the patch p also extends into aligned patches c and d at patchaddresses (12,17) and (13,17) respectively and at levels 1 and 0,respectively. The determination of the further aligned patch addressesb, c, d is performed by the patch x and y address multiplexers 784 X,Yand the patch y address increment select tables 780 Y described abovewith reference to FIG. 15 and by a modified form of the patch X addressincrement select table 780X which is responsive to the level data L andthe mode select signal MS in addition to the X misalignment mx, as shownin FIG. 30B. The modified table 780X provides a 1-bit output to the Xpatch address multiplexer 784X in accordance with the truth table setout in FIG. 30C.

The amount of shifting ZSFT required for each pixel in the gridprocessor so that each pixel occupies bits 0-15 in 16-bit mode and bits0-7 in 8-bit mode at the grid processor is determined as follows. Itwill be appreciated from viewing the 16-bit example of FIG. 32, that thepixels labelled 6, 7, 10, 11, 14, 15, 2 and 3 will require ZSFT of 16bits and that the pixels labelled 4, 5, 8, 9, 12, 13, 0 and t requirezero ZSFT. This is specific to the case where the x misalignment mx=2and the base level is 1. It will be appreciated that for the generalcase of a misalignment mx, where 0<=mx<=3 and a level L=0 or 1, therequired ZSFT for a pixel at an X location x relative to the base pixelof the patch p will be 0 bits if mx+x<4 and L=0, or if mx+x>3 and L=1,and will be 16 bits if mx+x>3 and L=0, or if mx+x<4, and L=1.

As a further illustration, reference is made to FIG. 33, which shows an8-bit patch p which has an address in its respective page of(px,py)=(12,16); L=1; (mx,my)=(2,1). In this case, the pixels labelled6, 7, 10, 11, 14, 15, 2 and 3 require a ZSFT of 8 bits, and the pixelslabelled 4, 5, 8, 9, 12, 13, 0 and 1 require a ZSFT of 16 bits. In thegeneral case of a misalignment tax, where 0<=mx<=3, and a level L where0<=L<=3. the required ZSFT for a pixel at an X location x relative tothe base pixel of the patch will be zero bits if mx+x<4 and L=0, or ifmx+x>3 and L=3; will be 8 bits if mx+x<4 and L=1 or if mx+x>3 and L=0;will be 16 bits if mx+x<4 and L=2; or if mx+x>3 and L=1; and will be 24bits if x mx+x<4 and L=3, if mx+x>3 and L=2.

In order to provide the required ZSFT value for each pixel, circuit ofFIG. 15 includes the addition shown in FIG. 34, in addition to beingmodified as described above with reference to FIGS. 30 and 31. The levelvalue L and also the bits 0,1 of the ritual address for the misalignmentmx are supplied as addresses to four ZSFT tables 818 a to d implementedusing combinational logic. The ZSFT tables 818 also receive the modeselect signal MS on line 814 and have three sections for 32-, 16- and8-bit operation which are selected in dependence upon the MS signal. TheZSFT table 818a supplies the ZSFT values ZSFT(0), (4), (8), (,12)corresponding to data D(0), (4), (8), (12) supplied from the readsurface shifter 742 to the exchange 326; ZSFT table 818b supplies ZSFT(1), (5), (9), (13) for data D(1), (5), (9), (13); ZSFT table 818csupplies ZSFT (2), (6), (10), (14) for data D(2), (6), (10), (14); andZSFT table 818d supplies ZSFT (3), (7), (11), (15) for data D(3), (7),(11) and (15). It will therefore be appreciated that the four ZSFTtables 818a to d correspond to pixels having X addresses of x=0, x=1,x=2 and x=3, respectively, in the patch p relative to the base pixel ofthe patch p.

The table set out in FIG. 35A defines the values of ZSFT stored in theZSFT tables 818a to d for different input misalignments mx, levels L andmodes (8-, 16- or 32-bit) and in dependence upon the x value for theparticular ZSFT table. As a further example, FIG. 35B sets out thevalues of ZSFT for the particular ZSFT table 818b (x=1) for all possiblevalues of mx, L and mode. In these tables, the ZSFT values of 0, 1, 2, 3represent a required shift of 0, 8, 16 and 24 bits respectively.

A further complication which arises when dealing with 8 or 16 bit datais that the X near-page-edge signal no longer needs to be dependentsolely upon whether or not 4 px+mx>124, but is also dependent upon themode selected and the level data L. The X near-page-edge signal is setonly if the highest X patch address is designated (i.e. px=31), and ifthe highest level data is designated (i.e. L=1 in 16-bit mode, or L=3 in8-bit mode), and if the misalignment mx is non-zero. Accordingly, thenear-page-edge table 758 shown in FIG. 15A is modified as shown in FIG.36A so as to receive the mode select signal MS on line 814 and the levelsignal L, in addition to the patch address (px,py) and the misalignment(mx,my). The modified table 758 of FIG. 36A produces X and Y values NPExand NPEy of the 2-bit NPE signal as shown by the table set out in FIG.36B.

As described above, during reading, ZSFT data ZSFT(0) to (15) issupplied to the crossbar 327 with the pixel data D(0) to (15). Also, asdescribed earlier with respect to FIG. 22, each processor PROC(0) to(15) is capable of reading any of the data D(0) to (15). It is thereforenecessary to ensure that the ZSFT data appropriate to the selected pixeldata is supplied each processor. FIG. 37 shows a modification to thecrossbar 377 and part of the grid processor arrangement of FIG. 22 for ageneralised processor PROC(i) where 0<=i<=15. The modified arrangementis similar to the arrangement of FIG. 15 except in the followingrespects. Firstly, a 16×2-bit ZSFT FIFO 678 is provided to receiveZSFT(0) to (15). The output of the ZSFT FIFO 678 is supplied to each ofsixteen 16:1 2-bit multiplexers 680(0) to 680(15). The 2-bit outputs ofthe ZSFT multiplexers 680(0) to 680(15) are supplied to the respectiveprocessors PROC(0) to PROC(15) as signals ZSFT'(0) to (15). The ZSFTmultiplexers are controlled by the same logical control signals CO(0) toCO(15) as the associated data and write enable multiplexers. It willtherefore be appreciated that each processor receives the appropriateZSFT data for the pixel data which is selects and can then shift thereceived pixel data by 0, 8, 16 or 24 bits in dependence upon the value0, 1, 2 or 3 of the received ZSFT data so that the received pixel datathen always occupies the first 8 bits of the processor's input registerin 8-bit mode, or the first 16 bits of the input register in 16-bitmode.

It will be appreciated that the arrangement of the multiplexers andFIFOs shown in FIG. 37 may be modified in a similar manner to themodification of FIG. 22 which is described above with reference to FIGS.46 and 47.

A further complication which arises when dealing with 16-bit or 8-bitpixel data is that, during writing to the memory 700, only theappropriate 16 or 8 bits should be written, and the remaining 16 or 24should not be overwritten. For example, referring to FIG. 32, duringwriting of the patch p as shown, the memory cells which are to store the16-bit pixels labelled 6, 7, 10, 11, lz4, 15, 2 and 3 need to have bits16 to 31 written, with writing of bits 0 to 15 disabled, and the memorycells which are to store the pixels labelled 4, 5, 8, 9, 12, 13, 0 and 1need to have bits 0 to 15 written, with bits 16 to 31 being disabled. Asa further example, referring to FIG. 33, the memory cells which are tostore the 8-bit pixels labelled 6, 7, 10, 11, 14, 1.5, 2 and 3 need tohave bits 8 to 15 written, with bits 0 to 7 and 16 to 31 being disabled,and the memory cells which are to store the pixels labelled 4, 5, 8, 9,12, 13, 0 and 1 need to have bits 16 to 23 written with bits 0 to 15 and24 to 31 disabled.

In order to deal with this complication, the circuit of FIG. 40 isemployed, which provides partial write enable signals PWEa to PWEd forthe memory banks having x addresses of bx=0, 1, 2 and 3, respectively.The circuit of FIG. 40 comprises four PWE tables 822a to d for thevalues bx=0 to 3, respectively. Each PWE table 822 is provided with thebits 0,1 of the virtual address on bus 319 indicating the X misalignmenttax, the value L from the circuit 820 of FIG. 30, and the mode select MSsignal on line 814. The PWE tables contain the data as set out in FIG.38 and therefore a table having a particular value of bx can provide the4-bit value PWE in dependence upon the input values of mx, L and MS.

in addition to adding the circuit of FIG. 40, the connections to the Xlatch groups 707(0) to (15) (see FIGS. 8 and 14) are modified as shownin FIG. 41. The column address strobe CAS signal is still ANDed with thewrite enable signals WE"(0) to (15) to produce the signals CAS(0) to(15) and the addresses A(0) to (15) are also applied to respectivegroups 707(0) to 707(15) of X latches. The various bits of the partialwrite enable signals PWE(a) to (d) are connected to write enable inputsof the X latches for the cells 0 to 127 as follows:

    ______________________________________                                        PWE bits        Cells                                                         ______________________________________                                        PWE(A)    bit 0     0, 1, 32, 33, 64, 65, 96, 97                                        bit 1     2, 3, 34, 35, 66, 67, 98, 99                                        bit 2     4, 5, 36, 37, 68, 69, 100, 101                                      bit 3     6, 7, 38, 39, 70, 71, 102, 103                            PWE(b)    bit 0     8, 9, 40, 41, 72, 73, 104, 105                                      bit 1     10, 11, 42, 43, 74, 75, 106, 107                                    bit 2     12, 13, 44, 45, 76, 77, 108, 109                                    bit 3     14, 15, 46, 47, 78, 79, 110, 111                          PWE(c)    bit 0     16, 17, 48, 49, 80, 81, 112, 113                                    bit 1     18, 19, 50, 51, 82, 83, 114, 115                                    bit 2     20, 21, 52, 53, 84, 85, 116, 117                                    bit 3     22, 23, 54, 55, 86, 87, 118, 119                          PWE(d)    bit 0     24, 25, 56, 57, 88, 89, 120, 121                                    bit 1     26, 27, 58, 59, 90, 91, 122, 123                                    bit 2     28, 29, 60, 61, 92, 93, 124, 125                                    bit 3     30, 31, 62, 63, 94, 95, 126, 127                          ______________________________________                                    

It will therefore be appreciated that, during writing in the 8-bit or16-bit mode, only the relevant memory cells are write enabled, and theremaining cells are disabled.

It will be recalled that, in 8-bit mode, the data is processed as thefirst 8 bits of their 32-bit capacity by the processors, and in 16-bitmode as the first 16 bits. Therefore, in order to ensure that, uponwriting, the processors can write to bits 8 to 31 of the memory in 8-bitmode, or bits 6 to 31 of the memory in 16-bit mode, prior to writing,each processor which is to write duplicates, in 8-bit mode, the pixeldata of locations 0 to 7 in its output register at bit locations 8 to15, 16 to 23 and 24 to 31 of the output register, and duplicates, in16-bit mode, the pixel data of bit locations 16 to 31. Accordingly, whenthe enabled bits of the pixel data are written to the memory, thecomplete data for the pixel is written.

FLAGGING OF MODIFIED PAGES

Referring to FIG. 42, it is convenient that a predetermined section 830of the VRAM 700 is always mapped to the monitor 40, and for simplicitythe section will be considered between page addresses (0,0) and (7,7)giving a total mapped area of 8×8×31×31×4×4=1 Mpixel. It is alsoconvenient that images are rendered in another section of the VRAM 780,and for simplicity the section 832 between pages addresses (8,8) and(15,15) will be considered. Then, periodically, the data of therendering section 832 is copied to the monitoring section, for displayon the monitor. It will be appreciated that the data for some pixels maynot change between one copying operation and the next, and indeed it canarise that no pixel data changes between two successive copyingoperations. If these unchanged pixels are unnecessarily copied from therendering section to the monitoring section, then the performance ofsystem is impaired.

In order to overcome this problem, it may be considered expedient toflag each pixel which is modified during a rendering operation and tocopy only those pixels which have been flagged. However, this wouldrequire an inordinate amount of memory to store the flags and wouldrequire an excessive amount of flag setting, testing and resetting,which would degrade the system performance. In the arrangement describedbelow, therefore, pages which have been changed, or dirtied, in arendering operation are flagged, and only the flagged dirty pages arecopied to the monitoring section of the memory.

It will furthermore be appreciated that, if a page of pixel data iscopied from the paging memory to the VRAM, and that if that page is notmodified, or dirtied, in the VRAM, then there is no need to copy thatpage of data back to the paging memory when the time comes to replacethat page in the VRAM with a different page from the paging memory.Accordingly, in the arrangement described in detail below, a flag is setwhen a page is dirtied in any rendering operation while it is in theVRAM, and when the page is to be replaced, it is copied back to thepaging memory only if the flag is set.

It should be noted that pixel data in the VRAM is processed in patchesand that a non-aligned patch may extend across a page boundary.Therefore the arrangement described below also includes for each page,dirty flags for the pages B, C and D, as shown in FIG. 11, to the right,above and the right and above, of the page A in question. It should benoted that if page A has a virtual page address (PX,PY) then pages B, Cand D have; virtual page addresses (PX+1, PY), (PX, PY+1) and (PX+1,PY+1), respectively.

Referring to FIG. 43, a dirty-page table 834 is provided by a 2K SRAMwhich is addressed by the 7-bit superpage identification on line 767from the CAM 754, and the 2-bit page X address and 2-bit page Y addressfrom the virtual address bus 314 on lines 768X,Y. The eight data bits ateach location in the table 834 are assigned as follows:

    ______________________________________                                        bit 7        Page A dirty swap dsA                                            bit 6        Page B dirty swap dsB                                            bit 5        Page C dirty swap dsC                                            bit 4        Page D dirty swap dsD                                            bit 3        Page A dirty render                                                                             drA                                            bit 2        Page B dirty render                                                                             drB                                            bit 1        Page C dirty render                                                                             drC                                            bit 0        Page D dirty render                                                                             drD                                            ______________________________________                                    

Bits 0 to 2 and 4 to 6 of the dirty page data are supplied to respectiveOR gates 836 (0) to (2) and 836 (4) to (6). At gates 836 (6) and (2),the signals dsB and drB are ORed with the near-page-edge X signal NPEX.At gates 836 (5) and (1) dsC and drC are ORed with the near-page-edge Ysignal NPEY, and at gates 836 (4) and (0), the signals dsD and drD areORed with an ANDed form of the near page edge X and Y signals on line774. The six bits output from the OR gates, together with a pair of highbits, representing the new signals dsA and drA, are then passed via aregister 838 for writing back into the dirty page table 834 undercontrol of a dirty pages write-enable signal DWE on line 840. The 8-bitdata line of the dirty page table 834 is also multiplexed onto the48-bit virtual address bus 319, and the address processor is operable(a) to reset the appropriate dirty swap bits and set the appropriatedirty render bits when a new page is swapped from the paging memory tothe VRAM, (b) to set the appropriate dirty swap bits and dirty renderbits for a page when rendering operation is carried out on that page,(c) to test the appropriate dirty swap bits for a page when that page isto be replaced by a different page in the VRAM, and (d) to test theappropriate dirty render bits for a page when that page is to be copiedfrom the rendering section to the monitoring section of the VRAM and toreset the dirty render bits.

An example of the operation of the dirty page arrangement will now bedescribed with reference to FIGS. 42 and 43, the table of FIG. 44 andthe flow diagrams of FIG. 45. Suppose that b, pages P, Q, R, S of pixeldata at (X,Y) page addresses (0,0), (1,0), (2,0), (3,0) in the samesuperpage are copied into the VRAM at contiguous page addresses (8,8),(8,9), (8,10), (8,11), and that the superpage has an identification codeof 25 in the CAM 754. Suppose also that the rendering section 832between page addresses (8 8) and (15,15) in the VRAM is copied over tothe monitoring section 830 between pages addresses (0,0) and (7,7) inthe memory. Suppose also that three rendering operations are carried outin the rendering section, the first rendering operation affecting pageQ, the second operation affecting page P and including a misalignedpatch which extends into page Q, and the third operation affecting pagesQ and S; the pages P to S then being replaced by four other pages.

The dirty page data for pages P to S will be located at addresses 400(=25×16+0+0), 401,402 and 403 in the dirty page table 840. Referring toFIGS. 44 and 45A, when page P is copied from the paging memory into theVRAM, it is treated as page A for the purposes of FIG. 45A. In step 842bit 7 (dsA) of the dirty flag for page A is reset and bit 3 (drA) of thedirty flag for page A is set. In step 844, the address processordetermines whether there is a page B' stored in the physical memory,that is the page to the left of page A. If so, in step 846, bit 6 (dsB)and bit 2 (drB) of the dirty flag for page B' are reset and setrespectively. Similar steps 848, 850 and 852, 854 are carried out forpages C' and D', that is pages below and to the left and below of page Ain the paging memory. Then, in step 856, page A is copied from thepaging memory of the VRAM. The process of FIG. 45A is then repeated forpages Q,R & S. It will therefore be appreciated that the dirty flags forpages P to S attain the state as shown in column 902 of FIG. 44.

The monitoring section 830 of the VRAM is then to be updated, theaddress processor 310 carries out the process shown in FIG. 45B. In theloop of steps 858 and 860, all of the pages of the rendering sectionwhich may possibly need to be copied are selected one-by-one. In step862, bit 3 (drA) of the selected page (A) is tested, and if set page Ais copied to the monitoring section in step 864, and in step 866 bit 3(drA) for page A, bit 2 (drB) for page B' to the left of page A, bit 1(drC) for page C' below page A and bit 0 (drD) for page D' to the leftand below page A are reset. In step 868, bit 2 (driB) of page A istested, and if set page B relative to page A is copied to the monitoringsection in step 870, and in step 872 bit 2 (drB) of page A and bit 3(drA) for page B to the right of page A, bit 0 (drD) for page C' belowpage A, and bit 1 (drC) for page E below and to the right of page A arereset. Somewhat similar steps 874 to 884 are performed for bits 1 and 0(drC, drD), as shown in FIG. 45B, and if set the respective page C or Dis copied to the monitoring section and various bits are reset as shown.It will therefore be appreciated that when this process is carried outwith the dirty flags in the state as shown in column 902 of FIG. 44, allfour pages P to S are copied to the monitoring section of the VRAM, andthe dirty flags attain the states as shown in column 904.

In the first rendering operation, page Q only is modified, and it willtherefore be appreciated that the circuit of FIG. 43 serves to set bit 7(dsA) and bit 3 (drA) for page Q, as shown in column 906 of FIG. 44.

The monitoring section of the VRAM is again updated in accordance withthe process of FIG. 45B. The only dirty render flag bit set is drA forpage Q, and therefore only page Q is copied, and the bit drA for page Qis reset, as shown in column 908.

In the second rendering operation, page P is modified, and also amisaligned patch in page P modifies page Q. As a result, bits 7, 6, 3and 2 (dsA, dsB, drA, drB) of the page P dirty flag are set, as shown incolumn 910. Because bits drA and drB for page P are set, pages P and Qare copied to the monitoring section by the process of FIG. 45B, andbits 3 and 2 (drA, dr8) for page P are then reset, as shown in column912.

In the third rendering operation, pages Q and S are modified. As aresult, bits 7 and 3 (dsA, drA) of the page S flag are set; bit 3 (drA)of the page Q flag is set, and bit 7 (dsA) of the page Q flag remainsset, as shown in column 914. Because bits 3 (dr.A) of pages Q and S areset, pages Q and S are copied to the monitoring section of the VRAM, andthese bits are then reset, as shown in column 916.

When the pages P to S are to be replaced, the address processor performsthe process of FIG. 45C for each selected page to be replaced. In step886, a copy flag is reset. Then in step 888, it is determined whetherbit 7 (dsA) for page A is set, and if so in step 889 that bit is resetand the copy flag is set. Steps 888 and 889 are then repeated as steps890 to 895 for bits 6, 5 and 4 (dsB, dsC, dsD) respectively of the dirtypage flags for pages B', C' and D' relative to page A. Then in steps 896and 897, if the copy flag has been set, page A is copied to the pagingmemory.

Referring back to column 916 of FIG. 44, it will be appreciated that asa result of performing the process of FIG. 45C for page P, this page iscopied to the paging memory because dsA is set for page P (step 888).This is then reset (step 889). Page Q is copied to the paging memorybecause dsA is set for page Q (step 888). Even if it were not, page Qwould be copied because dsB is set for page P (step 890). The flag bitsdsA for page Q and dsB for page P are also reset (steps 889 and 891).Page R is not copied because none of dsA for page R (step 888), dsB forpage Q (step 890), and dsC and dsD for the pages below, and below and tothe left, of page R (step 892 and 894) are set. Page S is copied becausedsA is set for page S (step 888). This bit is then reset (step 889).Accordingly, pages P, R and S are copied back to paging memory, and theflags attain the status shown in column 918 of FIG. 44.

CONDITIONAL PROCESSING

The processors 606(0) to (15) of the grid processor 312 described aboveare arranged basically as a SIMD array, SIMD standing for `SingleInstruction--Multiple Data` and meaning that all of the processorsreceive the same instruction and apply it to their own particular dataelements. This can be an efficient and simple way of obtaining goodperformance from a parallel-processing machine, but it does assume thatall of the data elements need exactly the same instruction sequence.However, the processors are preferably arranged, as described below, tobe able to deal with conditional instructions. Further detail of such anarrangement is shown in FIG. 49.

FIG. 49 shows three of the processors PROC 0, PROC i and PROC 15, withPROC i being shown in greater detail, their PRAMs 322(0), (i), (15), themicrocode memory 308 and the processing section broadcast bus 323. Themicrocode memory 308 supplies microcode instructions of about 90 bits toeach respective instruction decode logic (IDL) circuit 100 in each ofthe processors. The same microcode instruction is supplied to eachprocessor, The instruction decode logic is provided by a gate arraywhich decodes the 90 bit instruction to provide about 140 control bitsto various elements in the respective processor including an arithmeticlogic unit ALU 102, a 32-bit pixel accumulator (pa) 104, a 1-bitcondition accumulator (ca) 106 and a status select circuit 108 which isprovided by a gate array. The ALU 102 connects with the data bus D' viathe exchange 326 to the VRAM 700, the pa 104 and a stack of pixelregisters p0 to pn in the PRAM 322. The main data paths for pixel dataare from the data bus D' to the ALU 102 and the pa 104; from the pa 104to the ALU 102, the data bus D' and selected pixel registers p0 to pn;from the ALU 102 to the data bus D' and the pa 104; and from selectedpixel registers p0 to pn to the ALU 102. Various status bits are outputfrom the ALU 102 to the status select circuit 108, such as a "negative"bit, a "zero" bit and an "overflow" bit. Some of these status bits arealso fed out externally. Also, external status bits such as the EN flag(see FIGS. 22, 23) are fed in to the status select circuit 108. Undercontrol of the IDL 100, the status select circuit 108 can select arespective status bit and output it to the ca 106. The ca 106 isassociated with a stack of condition registers c0 to cn in the PRAM 322.The ca 106 also connects to the IDL 100 and provides the write enableoutput WE' of the processor, The main paths for condition and statusbits are: from the ALU 102 to the status select circuit 108 and to theexternal outputs; from the external inputs to the status select circuit108; from the status select circuit 108 to the ca 106; from the ca 106to the condition stack registers c0 to on, the write enable output WE'and the ALU 102; and from the condition stack registers c0 to cn to theca 106.

The 1-bit input from the ca 106 to the IDL 100 is important. This inputcondition bit enables the IDL 100 to modify the control outputs from theIDL 100 in dependence upon the value of the condition bit, andaccordingly the arrangement provides direct support for microcodeinstructions from the microcode memory 308 to the IDL 100 which inhigh-level language would be represented by, for example, if (condition)then (operation X) else (operation Y). As an example, reference is madeto FIGS. 50A to 50D. Suppose that the VRAM 700 contains three images:image A of FIG. 50A which in this simple example is a rectangle ofhorizontal lines; image B of FIG. 50B which is a rectangle of verticallines; and image C of FIG. 50C which is a mask in which the upper-leftand lower-right corners are black (say pixel values of 0) and theremainder is white (say pixel values of (2³² -1). In the example, it isdesired to combine images A and B using image C as a mask to form anoutput image D such that image A appears where the mask image C is blackand image B appears where the mask image C is white. The processperformed by the processors under control of the microcode instructionsfrom the microcode memory 308 to perform this operation can beconsidered, using high-level pseudo-language, to be as follows:

    ______________________________________                                        1.      For each patch (x,y) in the rectangle:                                2.       If pixel in rectangle, ca = 1, else ca = 02.                         3.       c0 = ca                                                              4.       pa = A(x,y)                                                          5.       p0 = pa                                                              6.       pa = B(x,y)                                                          7.       p1 = pa                                                              a.       pa = C(x,y)                                                          9.       ca = zero-status (pa)                                                10.      If ca = 1 then pa = p0 else pa = p1                                  11.      ca = c0                                                              12.      D(x,y) = pa                                                          13.     Next patch                                                            ______________________________________                                    

In the above, steps 1 and 13 set up a loop for each patch (x,y) havingits origin in the rectangle. For each patch, each processor PROC 0 toPROC 15 will process a different pixel in the patch. In step 2 a test ismade to determine whether the particular processor's pixel in the patchis in the rectangle, and if so the ca 106 is set, otherwise it is reset.This value of ca will form the write-enable signal WE'. In step 3, thisvalue which is stored in the ca 106 is put onto the condition stack inc0 and an associated condition stack pointer is modified accordingly. Instep 4, the value of the processor's pixel in the current selected patchin image A is loaded into the pa 104, and in step 5 is transferred tothe p0 register. Similarly in step 6, the value of the processor's pixelin the current selected patch in image B is loaded into the pa 104, andin step 7 is transferred to the pl register. In step 8, the value of theprocessor's pixel in the current selected patch in the mask image C isloaded into the pa 104, and then in step 9 the zero status bit of theALU 102 is selected by the status select circuit 108 and is loaded intothe ca 106. Thus, if the pixel in-the mask image is black, the ca 106value becomes 1, and if it is white, the ca 106 value becomes 0. Thenext step 10 is a conditional instruction "If ca=1 then pa=p0 elsepa=p1". The IDL 100 modifies this instruction in dependence upon thevalue in the ca 106 so that it becomes simply "pa=p0" or "pa=p1" and themodified instruction is used by the processor. In step 11, the signalwhich was put onto the condition stack at c0 in step 3 is pulled off thestack and placed in the ca 106 in order to constitute the write enablesignal WE' and the condition stack pointer is modified accordingly.Lastly, in step 12, the pixel value in the pa 104 is transferred out tothe image D at the appropriate pixel position for the processor in thecurrent selected patch.

As a result of the above operations carried out by the processors on thepixels of all of the patches in the rectangle, an image D is formed asshown in FIG. 50D.

In the above simple example, the condition stack c0 to cn was usedsimply to store the initially generated value which will form the writeenable signal, and only one register in the stack was employed. Byvirtue of the provision of more than one register in the conditionstack, nesting of the conditional instructions is permitted.

PAGE FILING SYSTEM

As described above, pages of data can be swapped between the VRAM 700,on the one hand, and the paging memory comprising the DRAM 304 (FIG. 4),and the paging RAM 504 and fast disk 510 (FIG. 5), on the other hand.There now follows a description of how pages are handled as between theVRAM and the paging memory, with reference to the system diagram of FIG.51

The total system is based on a distributing operating system denoted bythe triangle 200. Part of this system constitutes a host page managermodule 202 running on the processor 10 of the host computer. Anotherpart constitutes a front-end page manager module 204 running on the i960control processor 508 of the front-end board 22 and handling the pagingRAM 504 and fast disk 510. A further part constitutes a renderer pagemanager module 206 running on the i960 control processor 314 of therenderer board 16 and handling the VRAM 700 and the DRAM 304. Each ofthese page manager modules 202, 204, 206 can make a request R to anyother module for a page P of image data specified by the virtual pageaddress (VPA) consisting of the following bits of the virtual address:

    ______________________________________                                        32-47           Image ID component                                            25-31           Y superpage component                                         23, 24          Y page component                                               9-15           X superpage component                                         7, 8            X page component                                              ______________________________________                                    

In response, the module to which a request R is made determines whetherit is responsible for the requested page, and if so it transfers thepage of data P and responsibility therefor to the requesting module, butif not it indicates to the requesting module that it is not responsiblefor the requested page.

To give two examples of how the filing system would be used, supposethat the page fault table 794 (FIG. 21) of the renderer has generated apage fault in respect of a particular page, this page fault is handledby the renderer page manager module 206. Firstly, the module 206 checkswith itself whether the required page is stored in the renderer DRAM304, and if so swaps the page of data into the VRAM 700. If not, themodule 206 checks with the front-end page manager module 204 whether itis responsible for the page, and, if so, the page of data is swappedfrom the RAM 506 or disk 510, as appropriate, into the VRAM 700. If thefront-end module 204 is not responsible, the renderer module 206 asksthe host module 202 for the page of data, which is then swapped into theVRAM 700. As another example, suppose that the system is to be closeddown and a complete image is to be saved to disk 510. Such saving of animage is handled by the front-end module 204. For each page in the imagethe module 204 firstly checks with itself whether it is responsible forthat page. If it is and the page is already stored on the disk staysthere, and if the page in question is stored in the front-end RAM 506the data of that page is copied to the disk 510. If the module 204 isnot responsible, it checks with the renderer module 206 whether therenderer module has responsibility for the page, and, if so, the page ofdata is copied from the VRAM 700 or DRAM 304 of the renderer to the disk510. If not, the front-end module 204 requests the page in question fromthe host module 202, and the page of data is transferred to the disk510.

In order to keep track of the pages for which they are responsible, thefront-end module 204 and the renderer module 206 each maintain a table208, 210 containing a list of the virtual page addresses of the pages,and against each address an indication of the location of that page. Forexample, the location data in the front-end table 208 would comprise anindication of whether the page is in the RAM 506 or on the disk 510. Ifin the RAM 506, the physical address of that page in the RAM would beincluded, and if on the disk 510, an indication of the location on thedisk would be included. The location data for each virtual page addressin the renderer table 210 may contain an indication of whether the pageis in the DRAM 304 or the VRAM 700 and the physical address of the pagein the respective memory. In the case of a page in the VRAM 700, thephysical address of the page need not necessarily be kept in the table210, because this address can be determined by the module 206 from theCAM 754 and the page table 756 (FIG. 15A) of the address translator 740,and indeed it i not necessary for the table 210 to include the virtualpage address of the pages in the VRAM 700, because the module can checkwhether a page is present by referring to the CAM 754 and page table 756and testing whether or not a page fault is generated.

An important feature of the filing system, in the preferred embodiment,is that the host page manager module 202 is not responsible for thestorage of whole pages of data. The host module 202 is used when animage is initially created. The image is specified by the host processor10 as being of a particular dimension, size, bit width (see FIGS. 25 to41) and background colour. In response, the system software 200allocates to that image the next available image ID (bits 32 to 47 ofthe virtual address). Until any rendering operations or copyingoperations are carried out on the image, the colour of every pixel inthe new image is the background colour, and the host module 202therefore merely sets up a table 212 containing the virtual page addressof the or each page required in the new image, and against the or eachpage address the table 212 contains the 32-bit background colour of theimage. There is no need for this 32-bit word of data for the page to beexpanded into a full page of data, for example 16 k words, until thepage is transferred to the control of one of the other modules 204, 206.Accordingly, when one of the other modules requests a page from the hostmodule 202, the host module 202 determines from its table 212 the 32-bitbackground colour of that page, and then repeatedly sends that 32-bitword to the requesting module, once for each pixel in the page.

In the above description, it is assumed that only one of the modules202, 204, 206 has responsibility for any given page at any given timeand that when a page of data is transferred from one module to another,the sending module cancels the entry for that page from its table 212,208, 210 and that the receiving module makes an entry in its table forthe page. It will be appreciated that the dirty page-swap schemedescribed with reference to FIGS. 42 to 45 above will not be effectiveif the filing system operates in this way, because when, for example, apage is swapped from the disk 510 to the VRAM 700, the entry for thatpage is cancelled from the table 208 of the front-end module 204, and soeven if the page is not dirtied in the VRAM 700, it would be necessaryto swap all of the data-elements of the page back to the disk 510.

The filing system described above may be modified so that it works inconjunction with the dirty page-swap scheme, by including against eachvirtual page address in each table 208, 210, 212 a bit indicatingwhether that page is current. The operation of each module 202, 204, 206is then modified so that when a module has responsibility for a page,the current bit is set 1 and when responsibility is transferred to adifferent module the current bit is reset to zero. Furthermore, when apage which has not be dirtied is to be swapped out of the VRAM 700, therenderer module 206 polls the other modules 202, 204 to check which hasan entry in its tattle for the page with the current bit reset, andinstructs that module to set the current bit, obviating the need to copyall of the data-elements for that page from the renderer module to theother module.

In the above arrangement, a single word representing the imagebackground colour is stored for each new image. Rather than storing asingle word, a few words may be stored, for example as a patch, andrepresenting, for example, a pattern which is to be repeated in the newimage.

MODIFICATIONS AND DEVELOPMENTS

Although preferred embodiments of the invention have been describedabove, it will be appreciated that many modifications and developmentsmay be made within the scope of the invention. To take a few examples,the non-split-level patches, pages and superpages described above aretwo-dimensional and have a pixel resolution of 32-bits, a patch size of4 pixels×4 pixels, a page size of 32 patches×32 patches, and a superpagesize of 4 pages×4 pages. It will be appreciated that the system may beconfigured so as to operate for example with one- or three-dimensionalpatches, and/or pages and/or superpages, with patches, pages andsuperpages of different sizes, and with different pixel resolutions.Furthermore, the system may be arranged to operate selectably indifferent configurations through appropriate use of funnel shifters,switches and the like. In the above description, examples of specificsizes of the memories have been given, but it will be appreciated thatother sizes may be used. In the split level patch system, division intotwo and four in the X direction has been illustrated, but it will beappreciated that other divisors may alternatively or selectably beemployed, that division in other directions may alternatively orselectably be employed, and that division on a pixel basis rather than apatch basis may alternatively or selectably be employed. The dirty pagefacility described above deals with copying between the renderingsection and monitoring section of the VRAM and also with swappingbetween the VRAM and the paging memory, but it will be appreciated thateither of these two features may be employed without the other. In thepage filing system, the page manager modules are run on specificprocessors, but it will be appreciated that each page manager module maybe run on different processors, and that the modules may be combined.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is one of a series of eight applications filed the sameday under filing numbers PCT/GB90/01209, PCT/GB90/01210, PCT/GB90/01211,PCT/GB90/01212, PCT/GB90/01213, PCT/GB90/01214, PCT/GB90/01215 andPCT/GB90/01216, and with agent's references PCT 98 1, PCT 99 1, PCT 1001, PCT 101 1, PCT 102 1, PCT 103 1, PCT 104 1 and PCT 105 1, and thedisclosures of the other applications are incorporated herein byreference as if printed below in full.

I claim:
 1. A data-array processing system, comprising:a first memoryfor storing an array of data elements; a processor configured andconnected to perform a series of processing operations on data-elementsstored in a first section of said first memory and to perform a copyingoperation after each processing operation in which data-elements arecopied from said first section to a second section of said first memory;and output hardware configured to output the data-elements in saidsecond section of said first memory; wherein said processor sets, duringsaid processing operation, a respective flag indicative of each of aplurality of portions of said first section which is modified duringsaid processing operation, and copies, during said copying operation,only each flagged portion.
 2. A system as claimed in claim 1, whereinafter each copying operation, each set flag is reset.
 3. A system asclaimed in claim 1, wherein said data-elements are stored in said firstmemory as a plurality of aligned pages, and wherein a respective flag isprovided for each page of data-elements in the first section of saidfirst memory.
 4. A system as claimed in claim 3, further comprising asecond memory, wherein said processor transfers data-elements betweensaid first memory and said second memory page-by-page, and wherein saidprocessor, contemporaneously with a processing operation, sets arespective second flag indicative of each said page of data-elementswhich has been modified since that page has been stored in said firstmemory, and wherein, when said page in said first memory is to bereplaced by a further page from said second memory, said processor firstcopies said page of data elements in said first memory to said secondmemory only if said respective second flag is set.
 5. A system asclaimed in claim 4, wherein upon each copying operation of a page ofdata-elements from said second memory to said first memory, the secondflag for that page of data-elements is reset.
 6. A system as claimed inclaim 1,wherein each page of data-elements is arranged in physicallocations of said first memory as a plurality of aligned patches ofdata-elements, wherein said processor performs said processingoperations on said patches of data-elements stored in said first memoryso that at least some processed patches comprise data-elements from morethan one patch, wherein each first flag has associated therewith atleast one further flag which is set when one of said processed patcheshas data-elements in a respective further patch, and wherein saidprocessor, during said copying operation from said first section to saidsecond section of said first memory, also copies each flagged furthergroup of data-elements.
 7. A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein saidfirst memory comprises a video RAM.
 8. A system as claimed in claim 7,wherein said output hardware includes a video monitor.
 9. A system asclaimed in claim 1, wherein said data-elements are pixel data.
 10. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein said data elements comprise pixel data. 11.The system of claim 1, wherein said data elements comprise texel data.12. The system of claim 1, wherein said output hardware includes a videoprocessor.
 13. The system of claim 4, wherein said second memorycomprises a DRAM.
 14. The system of claim 4, wherein said second memorycomprises a virtual memory.
 15. The system of claim 4, wherein virtualaddressing is used when tranferring said data elements between saidfirst and said second memory.
 16. The system of claim 4, wherein asecond flag bit indicates whether said data elements in said firstsection of said first memory is copied to said second section of saidfirst memory or to said second memory.
 17. The system of claim 4,wherein said data elements comprise pixel data.
 18. The system of claim4, wherein said data elements comprise texel data.
 19. The system ofclaim 4, wherein said output hardware includes a video processor. 20.The system of claim 3, wherein said data elements in said first memorycomprise at least four aligned pages.